Amber Ulmer

Anatomy Ultrasound...Nursery Findings...Josephine

2011-07-22T21:58:00.016-05:00

Hello There!

Well, we had our big ultrasound this week! If you've followed my blog for a few years, you'll remember that at Josephine's anatomy ultrasound they discovered I had "Complete Placenta Previa"... which is when the placenta is covering the opening of the cervix & if it remains that way, there is a lot of bed rest & a c-section delivery. I was pretty bummed when they diagnosed me. We went back 2-3 weeks later & my placenta had moved... which is pretty unheard of in a "complete" case. We were so excited that we could continue our birth plan!

So as we were approaching "the boy's" anatomy ultrasound, I was a little nervous that we'd be receiving the same diagnoses.

One of the first things my tech checked for was the placenta position & it was at the very top of my uterus, right where it should be!!!! I let out a huge sigh of relief! So we will hopefully have a nice smooth road a head of us...

Our tech was really great... showing us & explaining everything... the heart on an ultrasound is such an amazing thing to see... the 4 chambers... the beating... the blood flow. It's amazing.

"The boy" is perfect & we couldn't be more happy & excited to be welcoming a bouncing baby boy into our family!

In other news... we found an amazing chair for his room for my nursing chair! 1970's Orange & Yellow woven tweed fabric! So excited about this Craigslist find!

The next search is for this changing table. Jenny Lind.

Is it bad that I'm sitting here eating my 4th Chocolate Chip cookie & it's almost 10pm? Nah...

Josh got an underwater film camera for our "babymoon" next week & we tested it out while Josephine played in her new big little pool & at the park. The focus is great & it kinda choses where it wants to focus but it's pretty fun! And she's got a new short cut for the summer. Her hair was giving her heat rash on her neck & she hates it in a pony tail... so we cut it into a cute lil layered bob. Pretty precious!

So that is the latest happenings around the Ulmer home... just working on our June weddings... playing with our little love...

We've also got a fun give-away for a Forage Bowtie over at our Ulmer Studios Blog going through the weekend! Be sure to head over there & check out THE POST!

Wardrobe Wednesday-Maternity Edition

2011-07-20T22:35:00.001-05:00

This is just a little something I've decided I wanted to put together since really trying to dig into my wardrobe to create some cute & comfortable outfits to accomidate my growing belly & using some things I already have in my wardrobe that will last a little bit longer.

I also wanted to stay true to my normal style of dress as much as possible & avoid the "frumpy & pregnant" look.

1. The shirt is from Old Navy Maternity. $10 on clearance. :) The leggings, which I am a HUGE fan of b/c of comfort are my Forever 21 & were $4.50. Can't beat that!

2. My head scarf is in a cute floral/bird parrent & is from Target I think from last year. The way I tied it is like this. Crazy simple & you can get vintage head scarves at any thrift store/Goodwill.

Adding a great little necklace... I'm a fan of the longer "charm" style necklaces right now. They hit right at belly height. :)

Crazy comfy sandals...nice & flat...room for any heat swelling. These were $10 from Forever 21.

I have always loved wearing clothing that accents the belly rather than hiding it so most my outfits will help show you flattering & comfortable ways to do that. I am ALL about comfort all while being cute & stylish.

So I hope you've enjoyed the 1st Edition of the Maternity Wardrobe! Look forward to sharing more of my ideas with you!

Pinterest Nusery Inspo for "The Boy"

2011-07-16T17:36:00.002-05:00

So we've decided on a theme for "the boy's" room... Woodland Creatures! Josephine's room is a "bird + vintage floral theme" so we felt it complimented her's nicely. If you haven't seen Josephine nursery, check out her feature HERE over at On To Baby.

So Josh introduced ME to Pinterest... I LOVE that my husband is into all this kinda stuff...
Anyway... needless to say, I'm addicted...like everyone else who starts a pinterest account.
If you are on pinterest, FIND ME!

I've created a board just for "the boy's" room & here are some of the definite additions...

Owl Fabric for Crib Blanket

Chevron Gray Curtains

Vintage Owls + Word Prints

Yellow Woodgrain fabric for his crib bumper.

Shade of yellow, gray, & powder blue

Love these little stuffed owls.

Wood circle cut outs for wall decor.

Felt Woodland Creature Mobile but made by my sweet friend, Tobi Weldon of Ivey Handcrafted.

So that should paint a pretty good picture. We will had dark furniture to go along w/the Woodland Theme which will be crazy cute I think. I am going to look at an orange 1970's plush rocker that I hope will work great in his room too!

So we are at 18 weeks now...
Feeling great still... minus the head cold we all had this past week... still recovering. I forgot how horrible it is to have a cold + being pregnant. The exhaustion is intense. Glad that much is over with at least.

We have been so busy with working on our summer weddings that we've had virtually NO time to look through & process the recent photos of Josephine or us lately... it's really pulling on my heart today so we must make time for it this weekend. I do have a 18 weeks belly photo & a cute photo of Josephine touching my belly to share though...
It's so funny, after the ultrasound we had a few weeks ago for gender, whenever someone asks Josephine about her little brother, she tells them "he's under mama's belly" and lifts my shirt. Totally precious.

I've been doing some nesting the past 2-3 weeks... we got new couches... scored on Craigslist!

Crazy awesome chartreuse green! Love them so much! We haven't hung things yet above the love seat b/c that was the wall our tv was on... which has now changed to the wall across from the large couch... so things are still a WIP but we'll do a reveal when it's all said & done... which is hopefully before "the boy" arrives.

So that is the latest happenings over at the Ulmer house...

If there is something you would like me to touch on blogging... anything photography or baby/mama related, leave a comment here & I'll work up a post!

Sweet Pea Recap

2011-06-28T21:53:00.000-05:00

So I've totally slacked on this blogging thing since our second pregnancy...so here we go... picking up at just about 16 weeks. Going to do a nice recap.

So why now for #2?
We really wanted our children to be able to grow up together... play together... have a closer relationship. So when Josephine turned 2, we started talking about a time line for baby #2. With our wedding season for 2012 picking up already for Spring/Summer bookings, we wanted to make sure we had enough time from the time "sweet pea" was born to get everyone acclimated to the new life at home, me get established with nursing & my supply under control... since it was CRAZY out of control with Josephine... and just have a NICE 3-5 month long maternity leave before going back to work!
So following our "Natural Family Planning" lifestyle that we have followed for 5 years now, we knew the month we needed to try was March since our May is now completely booked for weddings.
So Sweet Pea was conceived in March giving us a due date of December 14th.

Now, I delivered Josephine 3 weeks early due to my cervix being short & had some pre-term labor scares around 32 weeks... so we might have more of a November baby... only time will tell though!

My first trimester went very well. Just the normal tired & a few short weeks of constant nausea but no real sickness. I feel very blessed that my body responds well to pro-creation. :)

We are using the Vanderbilt Nurse Midwives again!
I had an amazing experience with them for Josephine's birth & am very exited about it again!
Our Family Nurse Practitioner is also a midwife so we will be actually seeing her for most of my pre-natal visits since she is a 10 min drive from us instead of driving to downtown Nashville for our appts so that is a great convenience. I'll start going to the Vandy group at about the 32-35 week mark.
I'm pretty excited that Vandy now has birthing tubs as well! Hoping one is available when I go in for delivery.

Here is a current photo of me at 15 weeks!

So here we are... I'll be 16 weeks tomorrow! I have a friend who is an ultrasound tech & she had us come in for a gender ultrasound! We'll go for our Anatomy Ultraound in 2-4 weeks to confirm & get all the anatomy info!
And... we found out today that Sweet Pea is a...

Here is a lil photo snippet of our visit. Daddy documented & Josephine watched her lil brother bounce on the screen!

We are so excited to have one of each! It's going to be such an adventure & feel brand new again & we couldn't be happier!
We are still narrowing down the name list for boys but we will be sure to share once we have decided a name for our Sweet Pea!

I also just started a Pinterest Account so I can start gathering inspiration for his nursery decor! Feel free to share things with me that you think we'd like!

I am going to try & be better about blogging now so check back & comment!

xo

Flutter

2010-08-04T11:58:00.000-05:00

After I saw this page on Elizabeth Kartchner's blog a while ago, I knew I had to lift it! It's totally girly. totally sweet.

Mostly AC goodies w/a lil Daisy D's in there for some fun...

and a sweet Josephine photo for your day...

Waking up from an afternoon nap w/a wet head full of sweaty curls & a slightly boogery nose.
:)

Dreams...

2010-07-27T12:33:00.000-05:00

We have so many dreams & aspirations for Josephine.
Most parents do.
But so many of those dreams are just ours. Not what hers will be.
So we just want her to do the things that make her happy. Blissful.
Things that keep her true to herself.
Things that she will shine doing.
Things that she LOVES.

Products: Dear Lizzy American Crafts & other American Crafts goodies!

2010-07-11T11:16:00.000-05:00

So I have a WINNER!!

Christen Krumm said...: i love it when elsie and i have "conversations" it's so much fun. nursing would have to be a big one too. and her cute little "waving bye bye"...thanks for this opportunity!xoxo,christen krumm

Christen, I am so excited that you won!! Good old random number generator!
You have been reading my blog for a while & commenting so Im super excited!!! Thanks so much for hanging out w/us!! I've popped over to watch your lil E grow as well!

Just email me & I'll give you the info you need of the class!
ambie04@gmail.com

A few snapshots of lil Josephine... modeling for the wonderful ElSage Designs! If you haven't checked out her headbands & such, you must! I love what she makes!!

Josephine is such a HUGE reader! We must read about 20 "stories" a day... She is constantly bringing me "stories" to read to her. She crawls right up in my lap & turns the pages for me. It's so fun!
B/c of this, her vocabulary is AMAZING... I think she says 3-5 NEW words a day. She is repeating a lot of what we say to her... which causes us to now spell things if we don't want her to know what we are saying...
Example... the girls LOVES baths!!! So if we are taking a bath that night & Josh & I need to say the word bath... and it's not quite time for the bath, we have to spell it b/c if we say it, she will crawl SO fast to the bathroom & hike her leg up over the tub to take a bath! clothes & all... it's so funny!
She is so smart... it blows my mind!
I've been lacking on sharing some pretty big things lately...
She now says her name... started when she was about 15 months old... "josie" that is... not quite ready for "Josephine" yet... haha
She says "Harley" & "Roxy"... our dogs names.
When she wants to go "walking" she just says... "alking"... on repeat! haha
She took her first step by herself yesterday!
She's been getting herself up from a sitting position to standing w/out assistance from us or something to pull up on for about 3 weeks now... and she does it constantly & loses balance & plops down on her bottom & then does it again... over & over...
Yesterday all I had to say was,
"Josie, can you stand up?"
She stood up. Then I said,
"Josie can you walk?"
She took her first solo step!
Then plopped down on her bottom!
And we clapped & said "Good Girl!" and celebrated!
Oh, and her first 2 word phrase she said was...
"Good Girl"...
She is just like her daddy...
She is a "words of affirmation" girl for sure...

So those are some of the latest happenings...
OH... if you haven't seen this blog post on our Ulmer Studios Blog, you MUST...
especially if you like bare bottom babies...

Wow, so I caught everyone up on a lot!!
What's been going on in YOUR life lately??

SHARE!!!
Id like to get a conversation going in the comments! Ill be reading & commenting to everything! Think it would be fun if we conversed through the comments!

Giveaway Til Friday...

2010-07-07T11:56:00.001-05:00

Giveaway is til Friday!!!
Keep the comments coming! Tell your friends, post it on Facebook & Twitter!

This image was shot on Josh's Father's Day gift from Josephine & I. He has been drooling over FILM images lately so I told him he could get him a nice FILM SLR camera. We have some vintage ones he's been using... but I wanted him to have a great nice one.
So he ordered a CANON EOS 3!
Love how different the texture & colors are in film...
You can see more of his film work here
xo

Big Picture Scrapbooking: Don't Blink Class

2010-06-27T21:10:00.000-05:00

So Josephine is a lil over 15 months old now.
Where in the WORLD did those 15 months go?

I feel like we blinked & BAM... she's talking... on the way to walking...almost weaned herself...eating all kinds of big people food...giving us kisses voluntarily...
CRAZY!
I have done an OK job scrapbooking her first...
I'll admit though... I am WAY behind.

This brings me to tell you about this awesome class that is being taught by my super sweet & wonderful Mommy friend, Jessica Turner.

Here's the class description:
Finding time to scrapbook amidst milestones and diaper changes can be a challenge, but it is possible! In the self-paced class Don't Blink: Scrapbooking Your Baby's First Year, you will receive tips, tricks and inspiration to complete your baby's first year album - while he or she is still a baby. And don't despair, if your baby is walking and talking, Don't Blink will still inspire you to complete his album before he graduates high school.

As a new mommy who works full-time, writes The Mom Creative blog and loves to scrapbook, Jessica Turner's life is a constant juggling act. After not finding any baby scrapbooking resources she loved and with a commitment to completing her son's first year album while he was still a baby, she developed Don't Blink: Scrapbooking Your Baby's First Year.
After taking Don't Blink, you will be inspired to create dozens of layouts for your baby's scrapbook. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by the amount of pictures you have taken and the layouts you could make, you will have the tools needed to create a scrapbook that will be cherished for generations by your child. AND, you will be able to get it done during naptimes, at night and whenever else you can squeeze in fifteen to thirty minutes to scrapbook!
Class link:
http://bigpicturescrapbooking.com/dontblink.php

Coupon code for my readers:
Readers can enjoy 20% off Don’t Blink (link to: http://www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com/dontblink.php) at BigPictureScrapbooking.com! At checkout use the code: blogblink to redeem your discount. (This makes the class only $8 instead of the normal $10!)

*Disclaimer: This coupon only applies to the Don’t Blink Self-Paced class; coupon does not apply towards other Self-Paced Projects, Workshops or Gift Certificates. Good for one time use, per student. Expires December 20th, 2010 at 10pm PST. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Coupon must be entered in the “Promo Code” box during checkout and press “apply” button; discount will be applied immediately. Not applicable towards previous purchases. Other terms and restrictions may apply.

I am also giving away ONE spot to one of my readers!

To enter the giveaway, I'd like you to just leave a comment & tell me something you cherished about the first year w/your lil one. Even if that first year isn't over yet. Heck even if it's only been a few weeks that you've had w/your lil bundle!

I'll share a lil something of my favorite thing from our first year with Josephine.

I know I've blogged a million time about my love of nursing.

That is really my most favorite thing about her first year.

We are still nursing as well. 3x a day now.

Morning, After Lunch, Night time.

There is something so amazing about providing the nutrients your lil one needs from your own body. So perfect. So natural. I cherish my nursing time w/her. There are starting to decrease in length & frequency which is making me sad. It's bittersweet. I know she is growing & is enjoying big people food & playing so much right now so she doesn't need or even want to slow down much anymore to sit & cuddle up w/me & have "boobies" but I will miss it dearly.

Heck, we'll just have another one & I'll do it all over again! haha

No, but really, the nursing time is my favorite thing from her first year.

Now, at night when we nurse to sleep, she will sit up from nursing & look me dead in the eyes, smile so sweetly & lean in & kiss me a big kiss, then nuzzle into me & then lay back down & nurse some more. It's be most precious thing she has ever done. I just want to bottle it up.

So tell me what is your most favorite thing or moment from this past year with your little one.

Spark 2010 for Nashville Married Couples

2010-06-10T16:29:00.000-05:00

We are involved in this amazing marriage retreat coming to Nashville.
You can read all the nitty gritty details HERE.
If you live in Nashville, you definitely NEED to check this out!!

Here is our post about it over at Ulmer Studios.

And in other happenings...
Our Den is put back together & we have moved in!
Still getting things situated but it's liveable again!
So happy!

and a few new photos of Josephine for good measure of course...
First lil pool photos...

Nashville Flood 2010

2010-05-22T17:06:00.000-05:00

So where in the world have I been?

Well... did you hear about the Nashville Flood on May 1st?

Well... we had some damage from the flood.

We live in a 1970's Split Level home.

So our lower level is partially underground.

It is our office space/my craft area/Josephine's future play room.

We have a step outside our back door and from all the rain, the water was just standing about 6" in that step area & it started coming through our back door slowly when we noticed it at about 10am.

So we immediately started taking everything we could upstairs.

Computer equipment, client information, camera gear, (which was all set up right by the back door) scrapbooking stuff, all of it.

Then Josh started to notice that is started to come through the walls & was spreading through the carpet throughout the whole room.

So he went outside to take a bucket & try to drain the step area outside the door.

All the while it is pouring outside.

By the time he comes back in 5 mins later, the water is starting to pool up on the carpet.

So we get a shop vac & start shop vaccing.

Then we see that it's getting pretty uncontainable so we call Josh's dad & he called our neighbors & church pastor & several men/women from our church came over immediately to help w/several shop vacs.

So we had about 4 shop vacs going to soak up the water so we didn't get any standing water down there.

Then out in our yard, we have a grinder for our sewer system or something & the warning light for that came on, which meant it was full or overflowing or something.

So we determined it was b/c the ground was so oversaturated w/water that it was telling the system that it was overflowing. So the men dug trenches to direct the water away from our grinder thing in the ground so that it would divert water away from standing over it.

All the while, several men are in the house shop vaccing up the water that is coming it.

There was about 10 people here all day I think.

Totally overwhelming.

Once the rain slowed down that evening, the men left & it was just Josh, me & Josephine.

Josh continued to shop vac til about 10pm.

12 hours of it.

Our carpet was still soaking wet.

So the next day, the carpet was torn out & we also got some water in our garage so we had to take everything that was in our garage out into the driveway to sort it all.

TONS of it was Josh's grandmothers things since we are living in her home.

All of Josh's mom's things from when she was a lil girl & her sister's things.

Old chests w/their dolls, their clothes & special hats.

Their old baby things.

Some things were saved.

Some were not.

So for a week, our driveway was full of everything from our garage while we let fans run in our den & garage to air out the water so we could then start the rebuilding process.

We covered the tables of memorabilia with tarps at night.

Then started up the next morning with sorting & making trips w/trucks to the dump.

Then we had to paint the lower portion of the walls in the garage & in the den w/Kilz to stop any mold from growing.

They had to completely gut the bathroom, the closets & take out the paneled walls.

So we were left w/just concrete walls & tiled floors.

This is an image I took from my phone the day it was gutted. This is one side of the room that our office was set up on. That back door is where the water began to creep in through.

Then we made a trip to Lowe's & picked up LOTS of white bead board for the walls.

It will be NICE & BRIGHT down there now!

It was walled in 1970's paneling that we were going to be painting in a few weeks anyway.

So... jump to the present...

The white bead board has been installed.

We just have to caulk the seams.

The crown molding should be cut & installed this week.

Then they have to put the bathroom & bathroom closet back together.

Then the carpet will be installed.

Then then baseboards & corner molding & doorframes will be installed.

Then... we will be able to move back down there.

For now...

we are processing all of our client sessions out of our guestroom which is piled high full of things that should be downstairs in our den.

So we are basically working in total chaos.

All the while singing praises to Jesus for our safety in this tragic flood that slammed Nashville.

We were very very fortunate.

We know several people personally that were not so fortunate.

Losing everything they own except the clothes on their backs.

So we are blessed.

So that is where were have been this past month.

Sorry for the lack of blogging.

Will be back shortly w/images from our Mother's Day & other fun things we've been doing this past month.

Layouts

2010-04-28T10:23:00.001-05:00

Just some simple & sweet layouts for the post today.

and maybe 1 photo of our lil bit...
Using mostly American Crafts products & JBS goodies.
I love those 2 companies mixed together!

Going to be doing a series of posts the next couple weeks on my FAVE Baby Items that we used.

So stay tuned!

Jenni Bowlin Mercantile Kit

2010-04-12T08:18:00.000-05:00

Gosh, this month is flying by & I totally forgot to share my JBS Mercantile Kit layouts from Guesting this month!
I really loved how this kit pushed me to use colors I don't normally use. The Primary Colors.

This kit comes w/Banner chipboard pieces but there weren't enough to stretch across like I wanted... so just traced them. I also LOVED this lil flower clusters in the patterned paper so I cut the triangle for my banner so that the lil clusters were in the center of each banner piece.

This one has a bit of "carnivalesque" style to it. I really loved the banner stickers that came with it & thought the colors looks super fun & whimsical w/the green!

I also really LOVED the doll paper & just had to cut one of them out. Precious! And the Prima flowers... just darlin! I even attached some to a bobby pin for a hair pin... Just have to photograph that!

This last one is my favorite. I found the exact font that the cards in the kit were written with & make my own one in Photoshop using the title I wanted to keep the pattern going. "The Baby goes YUM".

Needless to say, I really did adore this kit & love it when I create w/products that push my limits creatively & visually. Thanks again Jenni for the Guest spot!
There have been some updates to the other Design Team Galleries so head over there & see the other great things you can do w/this kit!

Easter & Camera Questions

2010-04-06T10:44:00.000-05:00

I received a few questions regarding our equipment as well as what I use to print my scrapbooking photos so I'll answer those!

1. amber, i have a question for you...where do you print your photos for scrapbooking? do you use your professional lab? or a cheaper place like snapfish?

I actually just use my printer here at the house. It's a Canon iP1700. Several years old. but I don't scrap enough right now to place an order & I always have new photos I want to do. I do things on a whim, whenever I have the time so this is the best thing for me. I have been ordering 50 free 4x6 from places like seehere.com & kodak

2. .what's your fav lens to keep on your camera for those great captures in the park?

For this lil venture it was our 50mm 1.4. Remember to stay in the shade if you can. Harsh sunlight across the face & shadows in the eye sockets come from direct sunlight. Put the subjects back toward the sun to help!

We shoot w/a Canon 5 D Mark II. The 50mm stays on our camera most of the time, However we do LOVE our 85mm 1.8 as well. :)

Speaking of camera questions, I'd love to open up a Q& A if anyone has anything!

So ask away!

For now, here is our Sweet Easter Girl...

Thanks for all the suggestions on the hair pulling thing.
I have heard of that "trichotillomania in infants" but I don't think that is it b/c she only wants to do while nursing at night. It's more of a comfort thing I think... I used to suck my thumb so I wonder if that is her thing.
Anyway... I have remedied the problem for now by sewing Velcro into her sleep tops so that I can close her sleeves but then open them for morning time but then close them again for her nap so we don't have to do any changing. Hoping that a few more weeks of this & she'll have broken the habit. If not, we will just go a lil longer... or try that doll w/hair she can pull on.

Off to do some studying for an E-session we have this afternoon!
xo

JBS...JBS...& JBS....

2010-04-01T08:03:00.000-05:00

So I've been a lil MIA lately due to working on the newest April JBS Mercantile KIT!

I am the Guest for April & was super stoked to be apart of it!

Jenni & Doris also have been featuring artists on the Inspiration Blog for the month & asked me to do some things as well.

Here are the layouts I did w/the Homespun Product!

I love them so much!

The colors & patterns just make me so happy!

To see the Design Team Gallery for the April Kit,

Head OVER HERE

We are all going to be adding some things for the next couple days so keep checking back for new inspiration!

I love Jenni's products & kits for so many reasons.

Mainly b/c the patterns & colors are so up my alley & there are several papers I wish I could turn into fabrics for colors or to cover pillow with.

Wouldn't that be a nice invention?

A machine that could turn anything into fabric?!

So I need some advice from my readers that might have encountered this...

Josephine has been pulling her hair out in on spot.

She only does it at night while we are nursing to sleep & probably does it to fall asleep in her crib.

It's a pretty nice area that is now just lil spikes.

Last night we tried something we saw suggested.

Sew the sleeves to a long sleeve shirt or onsie closed so she can't have her fingers out to pull her hair.

I was worried she'd freak out or wake up at night.

But neither.

At least not last night.

So we are going to try that for a few nights & see how that goes.

I've tried giving her a toy to play with while we nurse to sleep like she does when she nurses during the day but she still tries to pull her hair w/her other hand.

I can't decide if she likes the sensation or is just bored.

I think she likes the sensation b/c having a toy didn't really help much.

So... has anyone else encountered this?

What did you do?

Any suggestions?

Her hair is getting so long in the back but she has trimmed her bangs & pulled out a section of her hair in the front.

Thanks to any advice!

Oh, we've got a bunch of photos from our Family Park Day yesterday posted over at

Ulmer Studios.

Here is one of my faves...

Answers to Questions asked on my Breastfeeding Post

2010-03-18T11:55:00.001-05:00

First I just want to say Thank You to everyone for sharing their stories! It’s a pretty personal topic & Im so thrilled that everyone was comfortable enough to share!

I would love for everyone who left me a comment to send me an email. Some of the comments don’t have any information for me to get intouch w/you & I’d love to!

So I figured I’d tackle the questions I was asked in the post!

1. Will you let her self wean or do you have a time frame in mind for stopping?

Im gonna let her self wean. We doing the Baby Led Weaning method. She is already showing signs that she is interested in other things by wanting something to play with while she nurses. And… my cycle just came back so Im assuming that she’s starting to consume less during her feedings. So we are just going about it in the most natural way possible. Less stress that way.

2. Did you experience a lot of pain in the first few months?

Yes. I used my fair share of lanolin to keep my nipples comfy. I did learn a nice trick as well. After a feeding, hand express some milk onto your nipple & let it air dry. I also didn’t wear a bra much the first month or so until my nips toughened up. Now, I can’t even feel her nursing & she has 6 teeth! It will get better, I promise!

3. What fixed your clogged ducts?

Let me tell you the steps I took to remove the clogged ducts.

15 mins prior to nursing, I used a sock full of rice (heated it up for 1 min in the microwave) for my moist compress for 15 mins, longer for stubborn clogs.

My clogs were always at the top of my chest wall, toward the “cleavage” area. That was due to me not changing nursing positions so that those top ducts got drained properly. So I would need to nurse w/Josephine’s chin pointing & massage the area of the clog. Since mine were at the top, I had to nurse her upside down. Sounds crazy right? So I would lay on the bed on my side w/my head at the headboard. I would lay Josephine next to me on her side w/her head facing the footboard. Her feet would be under or over my armpit. I would then, while she nursed, “pull” the backed up milk area down toward my nipple as to budget the clog. If that didn’t do the trick after nursing, I would get in the shower immediately after & just let the hot water run on my area of backed up milk & clog & continue to pull down and try to get it lose. Once I could see the clog (usually looks like a lil white calcium deposit or something), I’d squeeze to get it out of my nipple & then the backed up milk would just release… it is always really funny to see that happen. Once all the backed up milk has stopped flowing out by it’s self, I’ll apply pressure the area where it was backed up to make sure it’s all out. Then I would apply a ice pack to it since it was pretty inflamed. So I hope that helps! Email me if you have anymore questions about that!

4. What is the benefit of nursing in different positions everytime?

For me, I got clogs b/c I didn’t change positions. See, you have milk ducts all around the circumference of your breast. When you only nurse cradle or cross over, those top ducts don’t get drained as well. Once I started to implement the football position, those top ducts started to get drained better b/c of the position. My clogs were dramatically reduced by just incorporating a new routine of nursing. We do it like this.

8:30 am cross over both breasts

12 pm football on the side that we ended on during the 8:30 am feeding

3 pm football on the opposite of 12pm feeding

6pm cradle on the opposite of 3pm feeding

8pm cross over on both breasts.

5. Where did you go to see the lactation consultant? Was it through La Leche?

When we went to the pediatrician on day 7 for yet another weigh in, they told me to go across the hall to go see the Lactation Dept. So it was just across the hall. It just so happened that my friends mom was working there that day & I saw her. If I didn’t have a super great experience there, I was going to seek out the La Leche League so that would be a great resource for you! They have a great online community as well! I really encourage you to check it out!

I think that covers all the questions I received. If you have anymore, please don’t hesitate to email me!

Josephine’s First Birthday was crazy fun! No meltdowns. Happy lil girl the whole time!

Will be sharing those images soon once we get them all complete!

Here is just a snippet of the lil happy Birthday Girl opening her gifts!

and Yes, I did make her dress! My SIL made her headband.

Josephine & I got some Spring clothes the other day!

The dress I got was actually in the girls section. Just got a large & it worked out great!

Love it!

We are so ready for Spring!

Well that is all for today!

We are shooting a wedding tomorrow!

So fun!

Let the season begin!

26

2010-03-12T08:36:00.000-06:00

Sweet Josephine was born just 2 days before my birthday.

It's bittersweet.

See... It just means that my pregnancy was right in line w/my mother's pregnancy when she was carrying me.

Her first daughter.

Josephine is my first daughter.

And that my mom passed away 1 month to the date that I went into labor.

Crazy stuff huh?

I brought sweet Josephine home from the hospital on MY Birthday last year.

It was emotional.

Scary.

We were so exhausted.

Overwhelmed.

But so joyful at the same time.

So here are some quick shots we took of her on her Birthday on Wednesday.

We are having a small family party on Sunday so photos from that will follow next week.

dress is from Lassie Girl

So today to celebrate MY 26th Birthday...

We are doing our usual morning of cuddling up to nurse, eat breakfast, play for a bit, then her nap time.

Daddy is coming home early from work & some dear sweet friends of ours are coming over to spend the afternoon.

Should be a GREAT day!

A lot less stressful & scary than last year

Im looking forward to that.

ONE

2010-03-10T10:35:00.000-06:00

ONE

wow.

A Post about Breastfeeding

2010-03-09T10:23:00.002-06:00

Coming up on Josephine's First Birthday tomorrow,

I decided I would do a post about breastfeeding since I have done it full time for a year now.

A little background first.

I have always wanted to be a mother.

I have always looked forward to the amazing bond that breastfeeding provides.

I was NOT breastfed.

I just longed for that interaction.

Knowing that God made us as mothers to provide for our new baby's every nutrient from our bodies was totally amazing to me.

A lil hippish... yes.. I am.

Anyway...

It really just blew my mind how God created all this work naturally.

So I was really looking forward to this journey w/my sweet girl.

So Day One.

right after giving birth

Just a few hours old.

I was definitely scared.

Scared that it wouldn't take.

That we wouldn't get the hang of it.

Face, it's hard...

You're exhausted.

You're nervous about how life will be from now on.

And making sure your baby is getting enough to eat...

it's scary.

So we sought the help of plenty of lactation consultants while we were in the hospital.

You can read my birth story HERE.

I did have some placenta issues at birth & that caused my milk to be late coming in.

Day 7.

We had to suppliment w/formula for one night b/c she was jaundice & didn't have the energy to latch.

I hated that night.

Formula is such a hassle!

I would much rather just lift my shirt & cuddle up.

Anyway...

So I went to see another lactation consultant on day 7 b/c I didn't even know if my milk was in yet.

After a visit to the pediatrician who made me feel worthless b/c I wasn't experiencing the standard engorgement, I walked into the lactation office & saw the most precious face.

A very close friend of mine's mother!
Susie King!
If you are birthing at Baptist Hospital in Nashville or need an AMAZING LC, seek her out!

I just lost it! Told her I didn't think my milk was in & the pediatrician was mean to me!

She took one look at me & told me my milk was in & not to worry.

So we went back for a weigh in & feeding so we could see if Josephine was eating well.

The girl took in 2 oz in 10 mins.

Score!

Took her back to the pediatricians office 2 days later & she gained 5oz back!

Hugh relief right?

this was her after one of her first full feedings once my milk came in on day 7.finally full.

During the first several months, KellyMom was my breastfeeding bible!

So if you are an expectant mother, and plan on breastfeeding, bookmark that website!

So I thought everything was fine & dandy & we were on our way to better days now that I had milk.

So we get to about week 4-6 I think then all of a sudden her poop is green and frothy...

When we nurse, she will nurse for a few mins & then pop off screaming...

then go back & then come off...

Was tramatic!

I was so scared. I thought... gosh, nursing is suppose to be comforting & it's not...

What is going on?!

So I contacted my AMAZING lactation consultant & she just encouraged me to just breastfeed & it will work it'self out.

Then one day, we noticed some blood steak in her poo.

So we went to the pediatrician.

She told me to get off dairy & that it was an allergy.

So we did...

for 2 weeks.

No change.

Still screaming while nursing... still green poo.

So then we contacted my LC again & she said that it sounds more like a

foremilk/hindmilk imbalance & oversupply.

So we just kept on breastfeeding & my supply evened out at about 3 months or so.

No more green poo...no more screaming.

We were comfort nursing once again!

Now... during those first 3 months while my supply was evening out..

I encounted several plugged milk ducts...

Im talking like... 3 in one week.

I was soooo scared of mastitis. I mean.. terrifed.

So I contacted my lovely LC & she taught me the fool-proof way to get them out & it worked everytime.

Had all my clogs out within 1 day.

Then after 3 months, I was still getting pretty common clogs.

Still pretty often.

So my LC recommended taking Lecithin.

That was my cureall.

3 Months nursing outside

I started the suppliement & I think I've only had 2 clogs since...

& I've been on it since about 6 months ago.

Also, something I HAVE to do is nursing in a different position every time.

So in the morning we do the sideways laying on the "brestfriend", which BTW is WAY better than a Boppy...

it's much sturdier & is almost like a shelf they lay on.

Then we do "football" style in the afternoons, then cradle position for her evening feeding, then back to sideways on the brestfriend for her bedtime nursing.

And the clogs were mainly b/c I didn't drink enough water that day or something...

So... once again, my LC saved the day!

5 months old

So we were finally nursing happily!

But it took several months.

Several tears.

Several doubts.

But it was SO worth it.

10.5 Months old

Looking into those eyes as they look up at me.

Even through her teething, we encountered no problems.

5 teeth now.

I was nervous that once she got her teeth in, it would be challenge.

Nope. Not for us.

We did encounter the challenge of "bottle refusal"...

So we just accepted that fact that she would not take a bottle & just accommodated accordingly.

We are busy professional photographers so that was a challenge.

We just worked around her feedings.

She started on solids at 6 months.

No baby food.

Solids.

So if Im going to be a lil longer, we just have whoever is watching her give her some yogurt, grilled cheese, anything she likes until I get back & we nurse.

She also takes my milk in a sippy cup casually

so that holds her over for when we shoot weddings or newborns.

My thought is this: She has been sleeping 12 hrs at night since 3 months so if she is a lil hungry for an additional hr or so, she'll be just fine.

Hey, I was watching Regis & Kelly the other morning & Heidi Klum was on & said that her lil girl who is 4 months old refuses the bottle too so she is exclusively breastfed! Some babies just want the real deal!

Nursing in public is a tad bit of a challenge now b/c she like to play w/toys while she nurses.

She has even wanted to read a book while nursing.

So if I have to nurse while we are out, I make sure I have plenty of options for her.

Usually the cell phone works just fine while we are out.

At home, I have a table next to my nursing chair that has a basket on it that has some toys for her.

Recently, she has wanted to play w/the whole basket... so that was interesting.

Wow... so I think that is a pretty good recap of my first year breastfeeding.

I would LOVE your feedback.

How have you enjoyed breastfeeding?

What are you currently encountering if you are breastfeeding?

Do you have any questions about what I've shared that you'd like me to expand on in another post?

Tips, advice, anything?!

I'd LOVE to share!

Photos... Layouts... The usual

2010-02-25T11:06:00.000-06:00

The usual update around here...

Some AC layouts...

First the new I Do Line!

I haven't scrapped many photos from our wedding day & this line really makes me want to!

So I did.

I love me some gray & yellow!

Then a Josephine & Dada layout!

She was just 2 months old here.

I can't believe how fast time has flown by!

This is from the Botanique line! I really LOVE this line.

A few snapshots around the house in the winter months...

Not a fan of the winter months b/c it's sooo cold & venturing outside for some fun photos is not fun.

So we do what we can indoors.

She is so ready for some playtime outdoors though.

List of things that are NEW:

Words

-dada

-dollie

-mama (only when she is crying b/c she wants me)

-byebye

-ut oh

She has the cutest sweetest voice EVER!

We have been posting much more over at

Ulmer Studios Blog so be sure to catch up!

Speaking of, on V-day, we did our first

VLOG!

I plan on doing a HUGE recap of Josephine's First Year as her Birthday approaches...

and...

might be doing a post about some things that were super fab for me as far as what I learned, things we did that worked for us, etc for new moms.

Would anyone be interested if I did that post?

Any preggers reading the blog? hehe

Well, think that is all Im gonna chat about today...

be back soonish!

Good Morning...

2010-02-22T10:22:00.000-06:00

We are here...

Just a lil busy.

Will have a full post soon!

1 Year

2010-02-09T14:26:00.001-06:00

It's been one year since my mom's passing.
You can read the original post I wrote about it HERE.

Remembering her today as I spend my day w/my amazing daughter.

Came across this photo of her & I when I was a baby. Makes me wish she was here to meet her grand-daughter.

Our Newest Addition

2010-02-07T22:35:00.000-06:00

This is our new 21x32 Canvas Gallery Wrap by Canvas On Demand.

Hung above our couch in our living room.

In love w/this piece!!

Just wanted to share!

Had a GREAT E-session today!

Teaser is over at

Ulmer Studios

check it!

Heavy Hearted- Haiti

2010-01-22T11:38:00.000-06:00

I've been MIA due to having a personal connection to the massive earthquake in Haiti.

You may remember this post on our

Ulmer Studios Blog

regarding dear friends of ours, Mike & Missy Wilson, in the adoption process of a

precious lil girl in Haiti.

Well, when we heard of the news that the earthquake had hit, our hearts hit the floor.

We rushed to twitter to check the updates from this family.

Scary.

Another member of the Wilson Family, Katie Erie, was in Haiti at the orphanage that Tia (the Wilson's soon to be adopted daughter) was at. They were finally able to get a hold of Katie to find out miraculous news that the orphange that they were located at in Carrefour, right out side of Port Au Prince, was shaken but everyone was out alive & safe.

Praise God were the first words that left our lips.

So Mike (the dad) flew down to Haiti w/Brent Gambrell of Brent Gambrell Ministries (a organization working directly w/the orphanage) to find them.

Once they were located, the next step was getting them home.

Katie & Brent returned first.

Mike stayed 6 days in Haiti trying to get her home.

Finally Humanitarian Parole was granted to the orphans in Haiti.

Tia was going to be processed.

Their story was seen on CNN, NBC Nightly News, all the local stations & them some.

Here is the story of their homecoming on NBC Nightly News.

Amazing.

So many prayers.

Now, the next task is bringing the rest of the 45 orphans in this orphanage home to their new parents here in the US.

Brent Gambrell Ministries is in the process of making that happen.

You can read the story of the time in Haiti & things that are still underway on his blog here.

His documentation of his time in Haiti after the earthquake are amazing.

If you wish to donate to an organization that is working directly w/the orphanages in Haiti & bringing these babies home,

please visit

Brent Gambrell Ministries.

They have a team on the ground right now working on getting those babies out of there.

Josh was able to attend the homecoming at a small local airport at 5am.

Here are some photos from that.

Tia is now home.

With her new family.

In her new girly room.

It's been amazing seeing all the videos on Facebook of her seeing her room for the first time.

Twit pics of her first American dinner of tacos.

The princess crown that she is sporting around the house.

We can't wait to hang w/them & meet sweet Tia.

So please continue to pray for this family.

Continue to pray for the other babies that have yet to make it to their new homes here in America.

Shiny & New

2010-01-11T13:15:00.000-06:00

The New Blog!

Whatcha think of the makeover?

Thanks again to Jessi for the help w/getting everything set up!

Contact her if you are interested in a Blog Makeover!

She is awesome to work with!

I have a fun family session to share!

Your probably thinking...

You just shared a family session...

Well... ya.

Since we are photographers ourselves, it's very rare to get all 3 of us in front of the camera.

Our friends, Jordan & Landon Thompson of Landon Jacob Products came home for Christmas & spent a few mins with us in our backyard to capture some shots of us as a family.

These were taken by Jordan and post processed by us.

These are some of our favorites!

Such a fun 15 mins in the backyard!

It was super cold so we didn't stay long but got some super sweet fun shots!

She is 10 months old today.

I can't believe it.

I need to start planning her First Birthday Party!

Im in shock that it has flown by.

She is a crawling machine.

She is eating very well.

Somedays she is interested in food, somedays not so much.

That is the beauty of Baby Led Weaning.

It's ok that they don't eat a ton of solids every day.

She is still nursing full time.

5 times a day.

She is still sleeping 12-13hrs a night.

Taking 2 naps a day.

And is a bundle of fun.. as you can see from that last lil set of photos.

She keeps us laughing.

She is so much fun.

Full of smiles & laughter.

Cutting her 5th tooth I believe.

Here are some shots of her in our first lil snow.

We just sat her out there on a blanket for a few mins.

She loves looking at the snow out the window.

It was so cute!

I am so excited about the Style School Class I am taking by Elsie & Leigh-Ann

Excited about all the fun things Im gonna make!

Super inspired lately by

Bleu Bird Vintage.

Love this shot I saw on her blog.

Lovely granny squares huh?

I am almost done w/Josie's granny square blanket.

Just one large square.

Pumpkin, Rasberry, Cream, then trimmed in green.

Love it!

Ill be adding more links to my "Photographers" & "Crafters" drop down menus up there this week!

Makeover Underway....

2010-01-05T11:17:00.000-06:00

Stay Tuned...

Thanks to my sweet friend

Jessi Lute

for helping me get all this cute stuff I made

onto the blog

She is seriously rad at this!

Email her!

Studio Calico Guest

2009-12-28T11:39:00.004-06:00

I was so flattered to be asked to Guest for

Studio Calico!

Their kits are so full! Love it!

Here is the kit!

Here are my layouts!

Those wood letters are amazing. Real wood!

The most amazing sticker sheet comes w/the kit! The color combo is divine!

Love the vintage J that April included. They try to give a letter that will mean something to every person who places an order the the add on that the vintage letter is in! It was perfect!

And a scalloped mini was included & I already made my wreath for the house but wasn't quite sure where to put it but then I saw the scalloped mini and loved how each piece reminded me of those vintage siloette images so I just painted and glittered 2 pieces and punched an extra hole in each to thread it in my garland I was making for our staircase railing & put a family photo on it and threaded it w/the crochet circles I made & my wreath.

Our staircase is really narrow so I couldn't fit a full image together.

You can purchase the full kit

right here!

And you can see all the amazing designers work

right here!

We had an amazing Christmas w/Josephine.

It was so fun!

Will have a Christmas recap later this week but here is a fun shot of Josephine w/her first gift on Christmas morning from Gigi & Papa.

Her first coat & winter boots!

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T11:28:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas!
This was our family Christmas Card this year!

We are so very excited to be gearing up for Josephine's First Christmas!

Im sure I'll have tons of photos come the New Year of our crazy Christmas!

We are setting up another photobooth tonight and my parents house for our

Big Christmas Eve Family Dinner

So lots of fun will be had by all!

Fun Christmas props!

Everyone, have safe & happy Christmas!!

Family Photos

2009-12-17T13:47:00.003-06:00

Lots of photos to share today!

So here goes!

The day after our 5 year Anniversary, we had my brother in law and Josh's sister take some photos of us as a family. We coached them through what we wanted and I think it turned out great!

I snapped that one of lil bit.

These photos below are her "pirate face" as we call it. So glad they were able to capture her doing it! She huffs and puffs while she's doing it.

I love this bottom shot of my two J's!

We like to kiss & like kissy pictures... sorry!

I snapped this one of lil Josephine.

and we had to get some photos of mama & daddy together. It's been a while since we've had any.

Lil girl loves mama's necklaces!

I think that might be all my absolute favorites...

haha

So we are photographers right... and only have 2... 2... photos on our wall! Crazy right?! We spend so much time working on client stuff it's hard to think about what we want for our walls... and especially since we are uber picky, we have yet to nail down a display design we like. So we are still working on it for our 3-4 left empty walls.

However, we did get one area done last week!

This is our front door to the left... we have a 1970's spilt level so that is our "landing". I am standing upstairs in our living room looking down on the landing taking the shot. Our lower floors door is to the right.

These are 10x13 in size. Love them so much! Will prolly add some embellisments to the area. In time.

and a few things Im working on...

A HUGE granny square afghan for Josephine. Made outta Lion Brand yard. It's so soft and chunky! I love it!

And inspired my Miss Elsie...

It holds my purple Blackberry Pearl keeping it nice and cozy.

Especially since my lil silver piece that holds my trackball fell out at the dr. office yesterday, I knew I needed to make this asap.

And lil bit around our house this Christmas. I have more projects Im still working on before I post photos.

This is as you come up our stairs into our living room. Our lil book shelve that is a constant work in progress to get it the way I want it. Still of cute ideas for it... it's not quite "there" yet.

And this is above our couch... waiting for a nice big photo collage to be designed inside. The frame is about 3ft x 4ft or something big like that.

So there are just some snippets...

Waiting to get a nice night time shot of our white tree. I'll have Josh take that one. He's so good at that.

We are just hanging at the house this week trying to get Josie over her first cold and her two top teeth are just about in. All they have left to do is just break the gum but they are RIGHT THERE... Both of them... at the same time... poor girl. She's not entirely misreable but I imagine teething & having her first cold is NO fun.

Still isn't disrupting her sleep though... sleeping right through 11+hours every night w/teething & a cold.

That's my girl!

Well off to play before I lay her down for her nap!

Hope you enjoyed the update!

Will be posting our first Family Christmas Card in my next post!

Who Dun It & Eye Candy Overlays

2009-12-14T11:57:00.000-06:00

Yup! I am soooo happy that April asked me to GUEST for January!

The kit is so lovely!

The colors are so unique & they have lots of embellishments... LOTS!

And the HomeFront Paper line is seriously rad!

You can see the sneak peeks from the other designers right

HERE

So fun!

We've been fighting the sickies here in the Ulmer House since my last post.

Josie has her first lil cold I think.

Im going to the dr. today just to make sure.

She has a bit of congestion and a small cough.

9 months and just having her first cold!

We are so blessed!

So we got a fun email from sweet Jessica at Vol.25.

We are testing out her EyeCandy Overlays!

Here is just a quick lil sample I did.

Totally CUTE huh? I love them! You will surely see them around the blog here soon!

So head over there and check them out!

I am pretty in love w/her Zoo Prints she has in her shop too for Josie's room!

Totally cute right?!

Well that is all for today!

Josephine is waking up so time to nurse and then get ready for the dr. appt.

Hope it's just a small lil cold.

She is acting just as happy as usually.

Just a cough and stuffy head.

Oh... and be careful w/hot glue...

I was making those Felt Trees from Danielle Thompson's blog and some fell on the top of my thumb and I pulled it off before it had time to burn but I took several layers of skin with it...

It's pretty bad... so just keeping it clean and antibiotic ointment on it.

Winner & Layouts & Style School

2009-12-03T08:38:00.000-06:00

Hey Hey!

How was everyone's Thanksgiving?!

Ours was fun!

We started a brand new tradition!

We will be setting up a photobooth at our 3 BIG family get togethers every year. Easter, Thanksgiving & Christmas Eve.

With lots of fun props!

These mustaches are from Elsie.

Everyone had a total blast!

Even Grandma!!!

Josie thought it was pretty hilarious too! It was the best!

I have been finding a TON of inspiriation lately over at Elsie's blog...

This post especially about 10 Holiday Polaroid Ideas

photo credit: Elsie Flannigan

Especially now since Im learning to crochet!

This one is definitely on the list!

I see some fun garland using these!

Speaking of crochet!

So Im learning...

it's hard to get the hang on it.

Josie's lil foot is so tiny for shoes (narrow) and I want her to have some "boots" for winter.

So I thought Id try...ya... NOT EASY...

So im going to buy her some on Etsy I think and learn in the mean time!

If you have any favorite crochet pattern places, link me up!

I am a member of Ravelry now too.

So that is a start.

I want to make her boots and slippers but it's a challenge following a pattern still.

I hope it's not just me.

So link me to some of your fave crochet sites!

Good Knit's is one of my faves currently!

And I signed up for Elsie & LeighAnn's Style School Class!

It's going to be awesome!

Im glad I'll have this and learning to crochet during our slow season!

And a AC layout to share!!!

All Craft Fair line on this one! It might be fave line from this year!

Lil Josie during her newborn session at 10 days old!

Speaking of newborns,

Check out our Ulmer Studios Blog

A sweet lil newbie is posted over there.

Well g/g get Josie up.

Im battling another stupid head cold.

Hate these things!

2 in the past month!!

Darn winter weather!

Oh!!!!

The lil winner is

Christen Krumm said...

I am thankful for my new baby girl, Elsie and my hubby getting his dream job!!

Xoxo
christen

Christen, send me your

address & I'll send you out a lil something.

ambie04@gmail.com

Getting all DIY & A Thankful Give- Away!

2009-11-25T12:10:00.001-06:00

Ya, I wanna.

With our slow season approaching...

Im so getting all DIY!

My girlfriend & fellow photographer, Jordan Thompson of Landon Jacob Productions is coming in town over Christmas & her & her hubs are going to stay w/us a few nights and she is going to teach me to crochet.

I am SO making these....

photo credit: purlbee blog

I saw them on Elsie's blog so I was instantly inspired.

I also want to make a granny square afghan for upstairs.

So excited about learning to crochet!

Then, I was over at my friend, Danielle Thompson's blog...

and LOVE these...

We are going to be getting LOTS of prints done for our living room here soon and going to make a pretty massive photo collage and I want to make some of these to intermix with the photos.

photo credit: Danielle Thompson's Blog

Especially b/c our living room is decorated w/some vintage cameras we have collected anyway so I think it will be a fun touch.

Also, Danielle's Fabric Pumpkin Tutorial.. totally doing these for next year...

photo credit: Danielle Thompson's Blog

And... do you remember her Felt Tree Tutorial?

That is on my To Do List this year!!!!

With Thanksgiving being tomorrow...

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

If you'd leave me a comment and tell me something you are thankful for, I'll do a lil giveaway!

I am thankful for:

Our new life w/Josephine.

Health of our Family.

The growth of our photography business so I am able to stay home and raise our daughter.

So...

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Linkage & Scrap

2009-11-24T11:57:00.000-06:00

Hey!

So since my last post...

We celebrated our 5 year Anniversary!

Amazing!

Can't believe it.

I feel like we blinked and we are here in our 6th year together.

How can that happen?!

Especially now w/a lil girl w/us on this journey, life is happening way to fast for my liking.

So here we are.

Year 6.

We took Josh's sister & BIL out to practice some shooting skills on us for a lil family session of us.

Here is just a peek of the session!

We will share our favorites soon!

and a AC layout!

Gotta LOVE that Letterbox Line!

I have updated my link lists down at the bottom on my blog.

A list of favorite photographers of ours... which the list will be growing.

A list of favorite crafters of mine...which will keep growing as well.

So check them often for new links.

Well, Josephine is up from her morning nap so off to cuddle & nurse!

Welcome To Our New Home!

2009-11-18T14:49:00.007-06:00

So we are back at blogger now.

I'll be still doing some maintenance as I get the blog up to par so pardon the dust.

Here are a few of Josie's photos we took on her 8 month Birthday last week.

Sporting the Baby Legs...

Still can NOT believe 8 months have gone by.

She is amazing.

An amazing sleeper.

An amazing nurser & solid food lover.

An amazing potty girl.

An amazing baby in general.

Everyone comments about how HAPPY she is all the time!

I swear it's b/c she was swaddled 24/7 as an infant! If she wasn't nursing or being changed, she was swaddled! I swear by it.

We are finally starting to come up for air from our busiest month ever w/Ulmer Studios.

We are going to be cranking on our BLOG so be sure to check it out bi weekly for recent posts!

I will be scrapbooking this next week or so! I just go the Letterbox Line from AC!

It's lovely!!

Also, got a cute card up over at the AC BLOG!

Not much of a card person but loved making this one!

So Im going to try and work on this new blog!

Quick question...

Do you want a lil blog roll down the sidebar? Like links to some of my favorite blogs from photographers to scrapbookers to all around crafters?

Let me know and I will start working on the list!

Leave me a comment...

Thank you & Ulmer Studios Published!

2009-11-15T09:16:00.000-06:00

Thanks so much for all the feedback on blogging.

I still gotta find my blog a new home.

Just probably my old blog.

but it will get a major facelift and might take some time so I'll be there...

still blogging.

About our life as a growing family, our photography business, & a lil bit of scrapbooking & crafting.

Until then...

Keep up w/US

OVER HERE

We have LOTS of blogs to write and lots of sessions to share.

and

EXTREMELY EXCITING NEWS ON THIS POST!

Q & A

2009-11-08T06:49:00.000-06:00

Happy Sunday!

So Im going to answer some of the questions from my readers.

Melissa asked: Question-
When you schedule photo shoots...what is your favorite time of day? I
am struggling with sunlight hitting in the wrong place. :)

Great question Melissa.

So many new photographers struggle w/the concept of light. I did big time!

We consult this great chart.

We also consult our client.

If we are shooting kids or babies, we always ask what is the child's happiest time of day and we usually schedule it for that time and we work w/the light that we have during that time.

As far as what light to stay away from...

You need to look at the ground basically for the shadows that are being cast by trees/buildings/etc.

You'll want to stay away from areas where the sun is casting shadows onto the subject so you'll want to be "in" the shadow fully. No direct sunlight on the clients face/body.
It will cause your client to squint and the lighting will be sooo harsh. We love backlighting our clients. The family photo we just posted are an example of backlighting. The sun was setting behind us. You can get stellar solar flares that way and the subject is nice and warm.

We love shooting in the late afternoon though b/c the sun is lower in the sky and we can get those solar flares and the light is beautifully golden.

So Melissa, start studying and playing w/natural light. Study the sun's position in the sky during the time of day and use it properly by finding a fully shaded area if you are shooting mid-day when the sun is at it's highest. We sometimes use a reflector or 4x6 foamboard to shade our subjects if we are in direct light and don't have a shaded area to shoot so we create our own shaded enviroment so we get the best results no matter the suns position.

I hope that answers your question. If you have any more questions regarding this, ask away!

Next question.

Jessica asked: I have a
Q about your newborn shoots. You always have such beautiful knitted
hats and blankets. Do you have a stash and bring them along to the
photo shoots, or do you look through each baby's clothes and help the
parents pick out accessories? I know you make those adorable flower
headband for your baby girls...Also, do you have any special
tips/tricks for photographing newborns? ALL your nb pics always turn
out sooo beautiful!

Jessica,

I get all my knitted newborn props from Heather at Joco Couture!

She makes the most beautiful things!

Also, her friend at Le Petit Chapeau ~ Posh

make the most beautiful props!

They are amazing!

So I have a stash of my own and I also consult mom and dad and use what they might as too.

As far as techniques for photographing newborns.

We ask that mom be finishing up a full feeding upon our arrival.

We ask that the house be about 75 degrees or so.

We also bring along a sound machine, a space heater, a large very full beanbag, and all of our blankets for seamless backgrounds, a boppy, baskets, & all of our props.

I have studied newborn photography a lot. Everything from baby posing to the environment.

Natural light is best. We set up by a large window in the clients home and use all the natural light we have. No overhead light or anything. Just natural light. We do have lighting for backup if we have no large windows or a rainy day, but we try our best to just use natural light.

My clients have called me "the baby whisper". You have to have a lot of practice and confidence when handling newborns and if you don't have that, the newborn can sense it and will not be comfortable w/you handling them. They are very in tune to your emotions.

Patience is key as well. One of our sessions, the lil girl did not settle until 1.5 hrs into the session and she only slept for 15 mins and was not up for posing so I just read what she would let me do and did only that to keep her happy and comfy. We got some great shots w/what she would allow me to do. Every newborn is different. A lil boy we had recently slept the whole 2 hrs and let me do all kinds of new poses w/him. Never woke up. Then that lil girl I mentioned only slept 15 mins and cried the rest of the time mostly. So we kept her comfy w/mom and mom fed her some more and kept her comfy and once she started to fall asleep, we discovered that she was most comfy on her tummy w/her feet under her. You can see this lil ones sneak peek over on the Ulmer Studios Blog. So as you can see... even though she fought it for 1.5 hours, I was just paitent and let her get full and comfy w/mom and once she was out, she lets us great 15 mins of great shots!

Reading the newborns body language is sooo essential. You can tell a lot of what they will let you do by just reading them and what their lil bodies naturally do and how they are comfortable.

I hope that helps!

Thanks for the questions!

I am struggling a lil bit about this blog.

So I'd like to hear from you.

What would you like to see from me?

Photography related posts...

Scrapbooking stuff...

Baby/Mama stuff....

Im going to be moving the blog this month and Im just trying to find out what YOU want to read from me.

Im debating stopping the blog and only posting to our Ulmer Studios Blog so that is why I want to hear from you about what you want to hear from me.

If the interest isn't there, I'll strictly post to our Ulmer Studios blog.

So please share w/me what you want to read/learn from me!

Here I am!

2009-10-30T16:18:00.000-05:00

Ya Im still here.

Have I mentioned October has been a month of mad craziness?!

Whew... it went soooo perfect though!

TONS of perfect photo sessions!

2 Weddings

2 Seniors

4 Newborns

and lots of kiddos in between.

We have a 1 year old session tomorrow.

Then that finishes out the month of October & November is basically booked w/the exceptions of nailing down definite dates so it's great that we can say that we are now booking into December!

So lots of updates...

First, several Ulmer Studios Blog posts since I've posted here last.

Next, we have a fresh new website template & a good bit of new stuff in the slideshow and galleries. Still have LOTS of updating to do from our sessions in the month of October though so they will be added too shortly!

Check it out!

And I scrapbooked...

Some sweet AC lovin on this w/the cute owl and bird and the thickers of course!

And lots of AC here!

All Patterned paper, thickers and rub on is American Crafts.

I simply adore this photo of Josie and Josh. So sweet!

Got lots of fun cute photos from a lil Fall mini sessions w/did w/Josephine and Uncle Nate snapped lil family ones for us too.

We did this lil session in maybe 10 mins flat.

Easy and quick and got tons of sweet shots!

These next 3 shots are going up on our wall in our big teal vintage frame above our couch.

These 2 will be 10x15 on top of each other like they are here.

And this shot will be a 16x20 or 16x24 to the left of those two in the frame.

I just adore these photos!

And like I said... shot in under 10 mins flat!

This has me thinking that I'll do a Q & A.

So... Q & A...

about anything

Baby stuff

Mama stuff

Photo stuff

Gear stuff

Scrapbook stuff

whatever...

just ask!

Hey Hey... Gap Casting Call & Tutu Girl!

2009-10-22T03:33:00.000-05:00

How's it going blog world?

Missed ya!

October has been our busiest month....

3 sessions one week, 5 sessions the next... double sessions on Saturdays...

maddness!!!!

But it's all good stuff

2 weddings, 3 newborns, 2 Seniors, and lots of kids and families in between all that.

Praise God!

It's been so much fun and wonderful!

So we put Josephine in the Gap Casting Call thingy...

So go vote for her pretty please!

I have some cute photos to share too...

I made her a tutu!

So easy!

She has got so much personality this lil girl...

so much fun in our lives w/her!

It's just been a blast!

Since I've posted last, my

Designer Spotlight

went up over at the AC Blog.

Still kinda surreal!

Well, it's 8:30 so I gotta go wake lil bit up and nurse!

Have a great day!

JBS Guest & Lots of Photos...

2009-10-06T09:12:00.000-05:00

Lots to share today!
Last week I was asked to be a guest at the JBS Blog!
Check it out here...
Love all those girls....
so uber talented it's crazy.

Here is my page...

I love this photo of her so much.
I want it like in a 20x24 canvas!!
I plan on going back and finding her "monthly" photo and doing a layout stating the "milestones" she has reached that month.

Some exiting happenings in the Ulmer home the past few crazy weeks.
Josie has peed & pooped on the potty!!
Ya. 7 Months old.
Every night during our nighttime routine of washing her hair, after we are done before we get her in her jammies, we sit her on the potty.
The first night we did it, she peed!!
The next night we did it... she peed again!
Third night... nothing.
Last night... she peed & pooped!!!
She knows what the potty is at 7 months old!! I dunno how she knows... but she does!
Rocked our world!
We really just did it to see what she would do...
and she did it!!
Hope this is a good sign that we can get her potty trained pretty early!
Let's see.. what else.
She has eaten...
eggplant casserole
broccoli
bowtie noodles w/a lil spaghetti sauce
organic baby cracker
plum
yogurt-feeding herself w/a spoon
mashed potatoes
a taste of pumpkin pie

I think that is all she has had recently.
She loves food so much!
She wants to eat whatever we are eating!
So... we need to alter what we eat just a lil bit...
for the good of course.

She is still sleeping 11-12 hours at night and takes 2 naps during the day.
We have been so blessed w/an amazing sleeper.
She never ever wakes up once she down for the night.
Praise God.

Got lots of photos to share...
Here we go.

Yogurt Eating Happiness...

Some Mama Love
Notice... TWO TEETH!

Some Daddy Love

Oh those Teeth & Toes!

She has been doing this thing where she taps her chest... I really think she is learning to clap b/c I have been clapping with her and trying to teach her so maybe this is the start!
Pretty cute huh?

and some of mama & daddy

Quite a lil update huh?

We shot a pretty rad wedding 2 Saturday's ago...
I posted a couple sneaks on Facebook once the Bride & Groom saw them so if you want to check them out,
go here to our
Ulmer Studios Fan Page Wedding Album

We will have 4 more newborns in the next 2-3 weeks!!
Pretty big boom!
We just posted our recent Senior Session as well at the
BLOG

Busy Busy.
Got the house decorated for fall.
Feels SOOO lovely!
I have found a new love...
KANGAROO POUCH CANDLES
I currently have the Pumpkin on the candle warmer and it smells SOOOO yummy!
The smell is the perfect blend of warmth, sweetness, and it makes the whole house smell yummy!
Go check them out!!
They are 100% soy too!

So we are going to be leaving Typepad here soon...
Since we have our new Ulmer Studios Blog,
Ill need to find a new home for my blog.
Prolly blogger since it's a freebie...
I really want a fun template though...
So link me up!
Tell me where to find vintagey, fun, eclectic blogger templates?!
xo

American Crafts All Up In This Place...

2009-09-23T10:58:00.000-05:00

WOOHOO!

My first project as an American Crafts DT girl is up at their blog!
You can find my project
HERE
Click their banner to go straight back to their updated blog posts.
I have some AC layouts to share!

All AC except that orange strip. That is Pink Paislee.

Think it turned out pretty cute.
And here is another one.

And an older one I couldn't post b/c it was in the latest EntreArtiste Magazine.

And some sweet recent photos of Josephine taken w/our new camera...

Canon 5D Mark II.

ekkk...

so LOVE this thing!

Onsie is by Ivey Handcrafted. My sweet friend Brittany Moncrief gifted us with it when she was born.

What a sweet bit....

check out those dimples... hehe

We set up a lil "studio" in our bonus room... ie... a 4x6 white foamcore board that we use for our newborn session to hold the blankets that we use for our seamless backdrop and used some lighting we are borrowing from a friend and she was hysterical!

What a ham!

6 months has been the most fun yet.

She is sitting up.

Pulling herself up when we hold her hands to stand up.

Talking like mad crazy... no words yet... but has alot of babble to say.

Her 1st tooth is still budding on through.

Our teething necklace is still doing wonders for her!

I ordered it through amberizon.com for those of you who asked.

We did just get Sophie the Giraffe.

She loves it.

She is SOOO fun.

She had yogurt the other night.

Made a video on our new Mark II.

Will have to post that soon along w/the photos.

So funny!

She loved it... even though she made some pretty funny faces... and...

she fed herself w/a spoon! You'll see from the photos how well she eats w/a spoon already!

She watches us so she just soaks it up and imitates!

Well, I think that is about it.

We are covered up with photo sessions...

Had our first Saturday off in a while this past Saturday b/c it's been raining forever here in TN.

We have a wedding on Saturday afternoon along w/a "Shopping Extravaganza" thing at our church that we are setting up a booth at.

So sorry for my lack of blogging.

Im hoping the winter months I'll catch up.

haha

Thanks for still reading!

and of course,

We have another post up at

ULMER STUDIOS NEW BLOG

MIA...

2009-09-11T02:57:00.000-05:00

Ya, been a lil MIA lately...
Ulmer Studios has been rather busy along w/my projects for
Entreartiste Magazine
&
American Crafts
&
a 6 Month Old...
Ya...
she turned 6 months yesterday!
Can't believe it!!
Got loads of photos to share...

Sweet girls started putting those tosies in her mouth a few weeks ago...

These 3 are mew favorites.

So there is our sweet girl.
Time has just flown by.
And she was trying to grab the camera in these 4 shots... too cute!
Definitely the daugher of some photographers!
We have a lil camera ready for her when she is old enough!

Daddy spotted her two bottom teeth bout to bust through last night!
Her teething necklace has worked wonders!
Barely fussy and if she really bothered obviously, I just give her some of those hylands teething tablets and she is good.
Im so glad we aren't having to give her Tylenol or anything.

Well
We have a
NEW ULMER STUDIOS BLOG.
Head over there and check it out!
Have a RAD Day After Session up!
Bout to blog again today...
So check out the nice new large photos and clean design!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Flower Pin Headband Tutorial

2009-08-27T10:10:00.000-05:00

So.. first...
Check out the newest banner.
I took those photos of Josephine this week and I am in LOVE with them!
Here they are close up!

My lil sweet sugah bit!
She is just too cute for words!!

So this week, between client proofing galleries, client orders, & session stuff,
I made some more headbands for our newborn sessions we have coming up.
Several ppl on Facebook asked me to share how I did them so I did a lil tutorial.
I know everyone probably makes them all different kinds of ways...
So...
If you make them yourself, I would LOVE for you to share in the comment section how you make headbands for your lil one.
Now, this is my first time really making them...
So if you have some insight to share as well, please do!

So, the headbands I use them on are from Target...by "Goody"... they are soft and thick and have nice stretch.
But here is the lil tutorial.

So there are all my new flowers to attach to the headbands!
The pins are the kind that have a safety clasp that rolls over where the pin is held in place so it will stay shut.

So there you have it!
That is how I made them...
How do you make flower headbands?

xo

A Cause, A Newborn, & First Solids

2009-08-25T09:02:00.000-05:00

So today's post, I want you to go visit
Ulmer Studios
for that specific post
regarding our sweet friends
who are adopting a lil girl
from
Haiti.
So spend some time there and read their story
and
HELP
if you can.
CLICK HERE if you want to help!

Then hit up this post on
Ulmer Studios
Sweet Newborn Lovin'
We've got 4 more newborns lined up for Sept-Oct.
I LOVE PHOTOGRAPHING NEWBORNS!
Gosh.

Some updates on us...
We are covered in work...
which is such a blessing!
We are booked through October and November is booking up already!
It's been an amazing year for our business!
Praise God!

Josephine is getting so big...
she is rolling over when she is sleeping...
I'll go in there and find her still asleep and on her tummy...
sucking her thumb and drooling!
it's the sweetest thing!
and...
she is eating yummy things...
She's not swallowing anything yet really... just tasting and exploring and sucking...
but she loves BLW so far! So do we! It's sooo much fun!
Today, she had some of my cheese toast (grilled cheese) and enjoyed sucking on it.

and a lil bit of a cracker

And she is playing more in her saucer...

and just being sweet all around...

Gosh... I just love this lil bit...
She was having a rough afternoon w/teething and didn't want to be laid down but was sooo tired so Josh just held her and she was out...
So of course...
Photo op.

Think that about covers it...
Just enjoying everyday with her.
It's magical.
xo

#1 on Explore...Rolled Over...Layout

2009-08-14T09:45:00.000-05:00

Yup...
check this...
so pumped!

So excited!
#1 on Explore for August 10th!

And... yesterday evening, we heard Josie crying as she was waking up from her afternoon nap.... which is normal... so we went up after a few minutes when we knew she wouldn't settle down and guess what?
She was on her tummy!
Rolled over for the first time!
Poor girl couldn't figure out how to get back over though!
So happy that she did it on her own!
We've been practicing with my help of course...
She's doing great!
And... because she refuses to drink from a bottle... for anyone...
several ppl suggested getting her a sippy cup instead.
So we did.
And she takes it to her mouth and chomps on the spout...
She makes a pretty foul face though...
could she not be liking the taste of the silicon spout?
Any other suggestions for me?
She just refuses a bottle...
I'm not complaining at all...
I love that my girl love to nurse...
but
we have 2 weddings in October and when my parents keep her,
I'd really like her to be happy for them and take a bottle when she is hungry instead of screaming like she does now! haha
So any other suggestions?

I have a layout to share!
Used up some Sassafras

also posted up a cute session over at
Ulmer Studios
So hit that up if you're in the mood!
xo

5 Months

2009-08-12T05:37:00.000-05:00

Can't believe it.
She is 5 months old.
Where did the time go?

Too fast.
The other morning, l was waking her up and I leaned in to kiss her and she just grabbed all my hair and face and pulled me to her and kissed back and closed her eyes like she was just so happy..
It melted my heart...
So is so affectionate. I love it.
Here are some sweet photos of me and her that I just adore...

Thanks Daddy for taking these!

This week I've just been getting client orders ready and uploaded to our printer and delivering orders.

Im going to try and work on some scrappy thing at some point.
Josephine lately hasn't been taking much of an afternoon nap and my mornings are spent working on photography stuff so my afternoons are pretty much just spent entertaining her.
Hope to work on something soon though!

Been really enjoying spending some time in the Word in the evenings while laying in bed.
It's been great to really meditate on it before falling asleep & unwinding/.
Josh & I are able to have some great uninterrupted discussions on stuff.

I've got an article to work on as well for Celine's magazine...
Trying to think of what to write about...
any suggestions?
What would you be interested in me touching on scrapbooking wise?
xo

Oh, got a post up at
Ulmer Studios

In ♥

2009-08-06T06:24:00.000-05:00

Josh sent me this video from work today.
I cried.
for several reasons.
1. The song playing is by Sigur Ros and it was my music during the delivery of Josie. We had it playing while I was pushing and she entered this world.
2. I adore the love story... it's incredible.

So enjoy...

A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

Life=Busy

2009-08-05T05:46:00.000-05:00

That would explain my MIA-ness as of lately...
We have had lots of sessions in the month of July...
Families, 2 newborns, a Day After Wedding Anniversary Session, an Anniversary Event...
LOTS...
so that would explain my lack of blogging.
But Im here...
recovering from all the editing/client gallery uploads/client orders...
Still have more to do...
but I have time for a break.
So I'll blog.
Here is my latest favorite photo of Josephine.
Story:
It was about 7:30 at night.
Josie gets rather "needy" at that time of night..
She needs to be loved on... played with... held... made happy...
So we do lots of things to entertain her.
She lately is loving to bounce...
bounce on our laps... our knees... it's so cute.
And she loves being lifted up in the hair and let down fast...
and leaned back and brought back up fast.
Wonder if she will be a rollercoaster girl b/c that is what it reminds me of.
So she is now laughing too... it's so fun! She loves kisses on the cheek/chin and nuzzles.. that is what really gets her laughing...
Anywho... back to my favorite photo...

She looks so unamused w/our attempts to keep her happy...
Hysterical.
I really do love her eyes... Everyone thinks she has my eye shape...Josh's color for sure... but my shape. She has my lashes too...long and curly... So happy about that...
My favorite thing about this photo...The lil tuff of hair that is sticking out by the couch cushion.
She has just woken up from a nap in daddy's arms so the hair was wet from the sweaty nap and we were trying to get her a lil happy before bed time.
She wasn't feeling it.
Josh set the self timer and took this shot...
cracks me UP!

Again, not really amused w/Daddy's antics...
Oh well.

and... I finally got a baby book!

It's adorable!
Target...Carter's Just One Year.
It's not cheesy either...
Now.. just to go back and fill it all in!

So at my parents house, my dad found a box of old photos... all my photos from birth-toddler/child.
Well not all.. but a lot...
so I went through them.
Found this photo of me and my mom...

I adore this photo...
I could spend hours going through all the photos...
It makes me so happy to have all of those.
It definitely pushes me to take more of Josie...
even though
she has
thousands
no joke.
thousands.
It's crazy!
But she should expect no less w/parents that are professional photographers.
She will appreciate it when she is older.
I know I do.

So you definitely need to head over to Rachel Denbow's blog...
SMILE & WAVE
The talented LeighAnn at Freckled Nest
Insanely talented gal!
If you scroll down and look to the right... you can see a lil AD for Ulmer Studios!
Im going to add it here to our blog too...
But here it is...

If you'd like to add it your sidebar, PLEASE DO and just leave me a comment that you did!
The photos are a from the recent "Day After" Anniversary Session we had this month.
Ill be posting those soon, but I have a lot more before those session photos to update with!

K, I think that is it!
Be sure to check the Ulmer Studios blog for updates in the next few weeks!

AND THANK YOU FOR ALL THE CONGRATS on the AC team!
So pumped!
Now to make room for all the goodies!

xo

SHUT UP...

2009-08-04T06:21:00.000-05:00

Is what I said when I opened the email....

from the
American Crafts Design Team...

Real quick...
head over to the
Ulmer Studios Blog...

Our Recent Wedding Is Posted!
Be back later w/a BIG post...

xo

Hey Hey

2009-07-24T06:29:00.000-05:00

Busy as a lil bee we have been...
hence the lapse in a post...
Just a quicky today...
We've been busy w/newborn sessions, playing w/lighting, booking sessions into the Fall already and booking Weddings for next year!
So pumped...
Praise God for He is Good!

Josie is doing wonderfully...
Just getting big!
Had our 4 month appt...
shots, charting her growth...
12lbs. 24" long.
Perfect.
Gosh, trying to think what else has been going on...
Just spending lots of time with family.
Going to spend some time w/my sweet friends tonight!

I do have a layout to share.

Photos of her in the hospital.
Just a few hours old.
All American Crafts goodies... and one lil piece of Hambly b/c I can't really make something w/out Hambly.

And Im pretty behind on sharing photos of Josephine, so I'll share the latest.

Her amber teething necklace came in!
She really is not putting her hands in her mouth much at all now!
If you are interested in one, I ordered it HERE.
Took about 2 weeks to really get here... but it was worth it.
The amber beads, when warmed on the skin, reduces inflammation.
:)

I have updated our website w/some fun new colors that we are loving right now!
Also, I have added a new collection!
And we have blog post showcasing our products HERE
And the newest post is HERE.
And... ya, another And.
I don't think I shared our E-Session we had in May...
You can see that HERE.

Ya, lots of updating!
Well, babybit is waking up.
xo

BLW...Photos...Layout

2009-07-08T06:27:00.000-05:00

No rice cereal or pureed food for us...
We are doing BLW.

A sweet friend of mine suggested I read this book.
Im sold.
It makes SO much sense!

Basically, baby skips the whole rice cereal/pureed food and starts solids when she is ready... typically 6 months or so.
She will eat what we eat... kinda.
She will eat w/her hands...
She controls her portions...
After all, she is breastfed and controls her portions and feeds her self now...
why would we change to spoon-feeding her?
So once she shows the signs that she is ready...
sitting up on her own, grabbing food and putting it toward her mouth...
we will start giving her fruits and veggies... in nice finger-sized portions for her to experiment with.
She may just put them in her mouth and play with them til she learns to chew and swallow... but that is perfectly fine. The have stores of nutrients from conception in their systems that at 6 months, they don't NEED anything other than breast milk for their primary source of nutrients anyway.
The books explains how the whole process works and it's wonderful.
The learn to love food.
Since she is breastfed, she is already used to different tastes, since my milk changes w/every feed depending on what I've eaten.
Also, breastfed babies learn to chew quicker b/c the way a breastfed baby jaw works at the breast is similar to chewing, not sucking through a straw like the feeding motion done by a bottle fed baby.

This is what happens with BLW.
1. the baby sits w/the family during meal time... seeing what everyone is doing.. then she become curious and wants to mimic when she is ready.
2. She is encouraged to explore food as soon as she is interested... by picking it up w/her hands.
3. Food is offered in pieces that are size and shape that the baby can handle easily
4. She feeds herself from the start.
5. It is up to the baby how much she eats and how quickly she widens her range of foods she enjoys.
6. The baby continues to have milk feeds whenever she wants them and decides when she is ready to reduce them.

Milk feeds are the most important single source of nourishment for a baby under a year old. If a baby is given too much food, her appetite for milk feeds will decrease.

So that is just a lil bit from the book about Baby Lead Weaning.
If you have questions or are curious about it, please email me at
ambie04@gmail.com
I'd be happy to go into more detail.

We are really excited about starting this in a few months.
She already sits w/us during mealtime in her bumbo and is already watching us like crazy while we eat.
It should be a lot of fun...

I have some photos to share!!

A lil recap of our photos from this past week.

Love this lil bit...
and a lil American Crafts love...

Im happy to be finally enjoying playing w/paper and scissors and thickers again.
Her naps make it all possible.
Her morning naps are from 2-3 hours... so that helps!

Well, I've got a layout on the table of photos of her at the hospital.. .so we'll see if I can make anything from them today.
xo

First Family Video & Birth Layout

2009-07-04T06:27:00.000-05:00

I journaled out on Josie's birth page... so it's done! I am so in love w/it! I channeled my inner Mandi Johnson... she has really been inspiring me lately! Must of been seeing her this past weekend that did it!

All Sassafras & Hambly products w/some paperlace for good measure!

I can't wait for her to look back at these pages some day!

And for our first family video!

We did it last nite!

I love it!

First Family Video-7-3-2009 from Josh Amber Ulmer on Vimeo.

Have a Happy Fourth of July!

Winner & More Layouts

2009-07-02T14:33:00.000-05:00

Love random.org for picking #35

cjs... posted at 3:11 am
There was no contact info.... so please CJS... email the green tangerine girls!

So there you go!
Email the Green Tangerine Girls your addy for your kit!
kitclub@mygreentangerines.com

And now for some more sweet layout goodness...
I used the past Kenner Road kit!
I did another layout w/it but can't show it b/c it's for the next EntreArtiste Magazine! I'll post it once the magazine is released!

and here is another with probably my most favorite scrapbook company of all...
Sassafras Lass

And I've got another Sassfras layout on my table I just need to journal.
It's the birth photos of Josie! I am waiting til I have the right thing to say to journal it. It must be perfect for her birth page.
And a few new photos of Josie during our evenings outside after dinner on our quilt.

I just LOVE these 2 shots!

And this was taken the following night. I love how she explores the sky and trees... She loves it out there!

Well we are off to have our outside time now...
Thanks for commenting!!

xo

Green Tangerines Blog Party

2009-07-01T16:00:00.000-05:00

Head over to the new kit club, GREEN TANGERINES BLOG
for a super rad party...
They are giving away TONS of scrapbooking goodies and having a stellar time!
I mean... $1000 worth!
The kit they sent me was so fun to work with!
TONS of product... I mean... TONS!
Here are some pages I made...

with the ribbon that was in the kit, I made a lil yo-yo flower... uber cute and easy to make!

I adore this layout...

I loved the papers in the kit.. great for cutting lil strips of the exact piece you want!

Aight... now they are allowing me to give away a kit!!
I love doing that!
So... leave me a comment for your chance to win a kit...
Comments must be posted by 5pm PST on July 2nd to be eligible to win!

First Play Date

2009-06-16T06:39:00.001-05:00

My girlfriend from highschool and roommate in college was in town and we had to meet up for a lil meet and greet play date for our girls!
Molly is just 2 months older than Josephine!
It's Josie's first time really meeting another baby!
Look how cute they are!

Seriously... how cute are these two girls!
I hadn't seen Ashley in several months! It was so great to see them!
We plan on going to visit them next week in Bowling Green while Daddy is gone on a business trip.
We gladly took some sweet photos for Ashley & Molly as well...
Of course!
There are some of my favorites!

Just a super quick photo post today...
Im shooting a charity golf tourney today and must get moving...
but you have to see these cute photos of Josephine now!
I simply adore this outfit my other college roomie got her...

Seriously the cutest thing!
And of course, the new blog header came from this series of photos!
Well, must get her up from her nap to eat then we are off to Pine Creek Golf Course.
Gigi (my Annie) will be watching Josephine while I shoot.
xo

3 Months

2009-06-12T06:36:00.000-05:00

My goodness... she is getting so big!!
She's officially bigger than Lion!!

Time flies!
At 3 months...
she is
sleeping 10-12 hrs a night...
a nursing champ...
still hates tummy time...
loves her Bright Stars play gym...
loves her dragonfly on her bouncer...
napping 3 times a day...
loves when daddy "growls"...
loves kisses on the lips...
discovering her toes every now and then...
sucks on her bottom lip to soothe herself...
still doesn't take a pacy...
developing a bald spot on the back of her head...
soooo close to laughing...
wakes up happy most of the time...
getting so good at holding her head...
loves to be in a sitting position...
loves to be rocked to drowsiness w/mama before naps...
loves to smile at mama while nursing in the football position...
loves to sit w/Daddy while he plays piano...

just to name a few things.
I have been horrible at writing things down...
I mean...
HORRIBLE...
so Im going to try and keep track of more things on here so I can reference back to.

My sweet friend is giving us a bumbo... just gotta go Monday to pick it up and visit for a bit!
She loves to be in an upright seated position.
She still hates tummy time but we do it w/her boppy and she is getting better.
She is really good w/her head so Im not really concerned too much about it.

We were at Josh's parents last nite and I looked through his baby book...
shame on me for not having one yet!
I NEED to get one!
Maybe this weekend.
I didn't keep track of her "firsts"...
like her first smile and stuff...
She came out and smiled right away...
but started socially smiling at about 3-4 weeks.
She started cooing at 6 weeks I think...
anyway... looking through Josh's baby book and photo album was so fun!
Josie' really looks like him and his sister Rachel when they were babies...
So not like me!
Maybe our next will look like me...
She will have curly hair though.
We wash her hair every night w/head & shoulders b/c she has cradle cap and when we rub it dry, it's definitely going to be curly!
It's also thinning out quite a bit... poor thing!
Im hoping she doesn't lose it completely and it just fills in soon!

This week, her morning nap has been a good 2-3 hrs long!
Then her two afternoon naps are at least an hr long.
So proud of her!
And she goes down well too..
I just rock and cuddle w/her for about 5 mins til she is a lil more drowsy and I lay her down...and she is out...
I love that rocking time w/her.

Got a pretty HUGE client order coming in today/tomorrow!
So excited!
Our biggest order yet!!
We have SO much to catch up on on our Ulmer Studios blog.
The recent session is for the lead singer of RED... him and his wife and lil 4 month old lil boy.
We are so excited to share that session!!

Well, off to get read to go grocery shopping w/lil bit.
Have a GREAT weekend.
We have a session tomorrow...
hopefully it won't get rained out...
xo

Daddy's Birthday Weekend

2009-06-08T06:53:00.000-05:00

Josh turned 28 today!
He took off work Friday.
We did some shopping for him at Forever 21.
We had his birthday dinner w/his parents Saturday night.

We have a cornhole game set that we play every time we go over there! It's so much fun!

We set up a sweet blanket and Josie's swing outside under a tree and hung out for a few hours. It was such a nice evening! We love spring evenings outside!

She loves the outdoors!!
Sunday was her first Sunday back to church! She did so great! Slept through praise and worship, then woke up and I got her outta the stroller and held for a bit, then she got fussy so we just went outside and walked around. Here is her lil Sunday outfit!

It's a sweet white eyelet dress from H&M. It was a gift from the photographer that did our newborn session with her! She was sooo cute!

Sunday afternoon, we headed to my parent's house to have Josh's birthday dinner w/them...
Steak, Shrimp, Pasta salad, coleslaw, and corn on the cob.
Josh's fave, rainbow sherbet in an waffle corn for dessert.
We played Wii, played with Josie, and had a great time!

A worn out lil girl from the busy weekend...

And her w/my dad...

So that's our weekend in photos!

Josie has been sleeping from 9-7 or 8am since last Tuesday!!
It's so wonderful getting rest at night!!

She is still getting use to napping more... she will only take an hr nap... til just now she took an hr 45 min nap. She might just be a cat napper...
We'll see how she transi
tions into a better napping routine.

We've been rather busy processing client sessions so pardon my lack of blogging.
Life is crazy...
xo

Making Progress

2009-06-03T08:07:00.000-05:00

Yup.
On sleep that is.
Saturday night we decided it was time for Josephine to sleep in her crib... for the first time at night.
I have been putting her in it to nap for one of her naps a day so she was used to it.
Saturday night.
She slept.
From 10pm-6am.
Ya... I was shocked.
I didn't sleep well b/c I was listening for her every sound...
and was awake at 3 b/c that was her normal feeding time and pretty much stayed awake til 6 when she woke up.
I was SO proud of her!
Her first night alone in her room.
Then next two nights she woke up for her 3 am feeding and I nursed her... only for about 10-20 mins b/c that was all she wanted...

Im starting to schedule her a bit more...especially now since breastfeeding and sleep are going great.
So...
last night, she made some noise at 4am...
I let her just fuss it out. No crying... just kinda awake but she settled her self back to sleep in about 10 mins or so.
She did the same again at 5.
I let her settle herself.
I want to establish a decent wake up time.
7 am I think is good for both of us. Especially since she's going to bed about 9pm.
So at 7... I went in to wake her up. She was back asleep!
My big girl!
So I woke her up and we started our day.
Sounds a bit like babywise right? I read bits and pieces of it and Josephine is already in that type of schedule of
feed/waketime/naptime.
She is still fed on demand... which is basically every 2.5-3.5 hours anyway...
So the only thing I'm actually changing is just letting her fall asleep on her own. Not much rocking like I used to or using the swing for her sleep.
So far her two naps today she fell asleep on her own after only about 10 mins of fussing. Not crying... just fussing.
Another thing Im changing is the "starting the day" time.
7 am.
Unless of course she is really crying crying.. which she doesn't do often.
Also, we are skipping the middle of the night feeding.
She obviously doesn't "need" it anymore so if she wakes up at 3 am...
she will settle herself back to sleep.
She's pretty good at that now.
Also, she seems to have just been "snacking" lately so this schedule of sorts is helping that.
So... this is what our day looked like so far.
7am- wake up
7:15-feeding
7:45-8:45- awake time/play gym
8:45-10:30- nap time
10:30- feeding
11-playtime in bouncer(story about that) & walk around the block and visit great grandma across the street
12-nap time hopefully til 1:30-2

She is doing so well.
Like I said, she was already on the "feeding/awaketime/naptime schedule on her own...
so we are just making some small additions to make her sleep better at night.
Bedtime will be between 8:30-9:30(like normal so that isn't changing)... And that bedtime feeding will not have any awake time following it, just bedtime. Depending on how "fussy" she is. She is pretty fussy in the evenings still, but not near as bad as it was. She loves spending time w/daddy in the evenings. It's so sweet!

I mentioned about a story earlier about playtime in the bouncer.
As of lately... she has been chatting it up w/Miss Dragonfly that hangs on her bouncer.
It's the cutest thing! She is so chatty w/her! It's precious!

Ill have to get a video of it soon!

So that is what we have been up to lately.
Growing up!
Crazy!
All you babywiser's...anything else that I might find benefitical to our schedule?
xo

Oh My!!!
I forgot!
OUR NEW WEBSITE IS TOTALLY LIVE NOW!

and...
I almost forgot about this!
My Challenge for the Entre Artiste Magazine Blog

Sweetness

2009-05-27T08:52:00.001-05:00

Shooting the wedding was a GREAT success!
Family reunion was great too!
Spent Memorial Day recovering
from such a crazy weekend.
Josephine did great w/the grandparents while we were working too!
So proud of her!
We went across the street to the inlaws for a Memorial Day cookout.
Had to take some photos...

And a shot daddy took w/lil girl the focal point...

It was so fun. Laid a blanket down in the grass and relaxed w/family!

Today we've got some storms so I've got Roxy in my lap shaking and Harley curled up too while Josie naps.
I've got some fun scrappy goodies in the mail this week so I must get some photos printed of Josephine to scrap!

Oh!
Josephine slept til 5:30 am the other morning!!! Hasn't slept that long since then... but she did it once!
She's at about 6 hrs.
Im having some issues w/oversupply and clogged ducts. I've had 2 clogs since Friday.
I know what to do to get rid of them, they are usually gone in a day.
But the oversupply is so annoying.
I only pump if Im really full after her morning feed, to prevent clogs.
So I don't pump everyday. Maybe 2-3 times a week.
And I freeze it.
Im going to try block nursing to see if that helps my oversupply & only hand express and not pump so Im not overstimulating.
She's only waking at 3:30am to eat and even then she only nurses for about 5-10 mins and just on one side.
I've been nursing her laying down but I think Im going to try nursing her sitting up so maybe she will eat a bit more and drain them better.
Any other suggestions?
She's almost 12 weeks old so my supply should be regulating very soon, right?

Thanks everyone!!
xo

Sweetness

2009-05-27T08:52:00.000-05:00

Big Weekend Ahead

2009-05-21T08:53:00.000-05:00

Hey!
A quicky post this week.
Things are a bit crazy around here.
Shooting a wedding and Family Reunion this weekend!
Going to be AWESOME!
We are so stoked!
Hyped up like mad crazy!
The groom to be is a friend of mine from high school.
It's at a local park...going to be beautiful!
We did their engagement photos a few weeks ago.
Ill be posting those soon to share.

This week we have mastered a new skill.
Nursing laying down.
She's gained enough control over her neck that it makes that once in the middle of the night nursing session and the very early 6 am nursing session a lot easier for both of us to fall right back asleep.
She has slept in her co-sleeper since last friday!
No more movement to sleep at night!
At least we are on a good streak with it.
I have officially moved her swing into her room.
She is napping there right now.
So hopefully it will stay there!

She's becoming a quicker eater too.
I've noticed that if I try to make her eat a bit longer, a few spit ups will follow... so she is probably filling her tummy quicker.
A question about spitting up...
I may sound so silly... but I've always wondered...
Does spitting up mean they are full?

ya, I just asked that.
So... anyone have an answer?

Now to share her cute 10 week photo

She has about out grown that onsie so I had to get at least one weekly photo of her in it.
It's by Carters. A gift from a friend.

Oh, I was in Old Navy the other day and DANG... they have the cutest vintage pattern outfits!
This is my fave!

And this cuteness...

I have so much pink stuff that Im dying to get her some things that ARE NOT pink.
I love red... teal.. and now orange!
Im so over all the pink.
I have so many cute things in her closet that she can't fit into just yet and it's driving me nuts!
haha

Well, off to be mama.
xo

Crazy Week

2009-05-14T11:28:00.000-05:00

Crazy week this week...

Josie's 8 week and 9 week photos along w/her growth photo!

I love that last photo from yesterday! Her lashes are my fave and I know I've said that a million times!
And here is her growth photo w/the lion!

Funny she is in the same onsie. Oh well!

And she is taking some naps in her crib!
Today it was 2.5 hr nap!
She had her 2 month shots on Monday.
That nasty rota virus stuff made her throw up...
And she screamed w/the 5 other shots..
And her poor legs were so sore.
She got a fever of 102.
We kept it down w/Tylenol.
It was gone by about 28 hrs or so.
Her legs weren't sore the next day.
She's back to her normal self today.
It was so miserable seeing her so miserable.
She just cried and cried and every time she moved her legs she would cry even more.
I'm glad to have her back today!

So we are going to slowly make the transition to her room.
She currently sleeps best in her swing.
She was 3 weeks early and really loves the movement so she probably sleeps 1/2 the night in the co sleeper next to the bed and 1/2 the night in the swing on average.
I'm trying to have to sleep in her crib for at least 1 nap a day.
She'll eventually "grow out" of needing movement to sleep, right?
That is what I've ready that about 3-4 months they don't need the movement as much.

How did you make the transition from your room/co sleeping/swing sleeping to your baby in their room in the crib?
We plan on next moving the swing into her bedroom...

I started my Burn and Firm Palettes video yesterday.
Definitely sore today.
I'm back to what I weighed in college.
In my opinion, I was too thin when I got pregnant so I'm not going to try and get back to my pre-pregnancy weight.
The weight I'm at now... I'd like to maybe lose 5 more pounds and tone up.
So for 9 weeks out, I think I'm doing pretty good.
I did gain about 45 lbs!
I've lost 25 of it just nursing I guess!
Now, just to firm up my abs again!

Well, Josh is about to be home w/Pizza Hut.
It's nice having a brother that works there that can hook us up on occasion!
xo

Guess What I Did?

2009-05-06T15:12:00.000-05:00

I've wanted one for... well... a long time... and b/c of the jobs I had, I could never have one...
Well... being a WAHM now... I got one!
A lil late birthday present!

Lil Josie is 8 weeks...
No photo yet from this week. I'll post one this week.

I do have a fun thing to share...
A friend of mine from high school is a local wedding planner and I've started working with her some!
You can read about it
HERE
Lots of fun!

And we just did an Engagement Session this week for the wedding we are shooting in 2 weeks!
Amazing couple...It's going to be a blast!

Josie is going about 3-4 hours between daily feedings and last night... she ate at 8:30 & didn't wake again til 4:30!
I, however, woke up at 3 b/c that is what time she's been waking and I was just listening for her and excited that she was still sleeping!
So proud of her!
She's doing sooo great!
We have our 2 month appt next Tuesday!
I think she is over 10 lbs now!

Well, gotta watch LOST!
xo

About FACE...7 weeks

2009-04-29T08:47:00.000-05:00

Hey Hey!
My NEXT class is up for sale in the SIStv Boutique!
CLICK HERE

I use these techniques when editing photos so what you see in my photos, you'll be able to do yourself now!
Would love to have you in class!!!

Well, Josie is still not a bottle fan.
I've gotten the playtex nursers w/the brown latex nipples which she has yet to try.
I got a nuk bottle and she took 1.5 oz of that last nite w/Josh while I went to my inlaws across the street.
Josh said she would've taken it all if she didn't take it out of her mouth to burp her.
But after he tried to give it back to her, she wouldn't take it at all.
So I came home and nursed her.
Any more suggestions?

I got some new fabric for another swaddling blanket for her.
I took her 7 week photo in it.
So sweet after a great feeding and nap.

It's a great stretchy waffleknit!

Im anxious for her lil eyebrows to start showing some color! Her eyelashes grow every day! So long and curling!
Her lil eyebrows are there but are blonde at the moment.

The week has been good.
5 nights in a row of 6 hour sleep stretches!
Down to just one nightly feeding still!
So grateful for that!

Well...just a small share today.
Going to try and rest while she is napping!
I must remember to do that on days when I can.
xo

Great Weekend

2009-04-27T09:08:00.000-05:00

Our weekend was great!
Friday I had my postpartum appt w/my midwife.
It went great!
Josh took the day off and we went to Centennial Park in downtown Nashville afterward.
Josie's first park day!
A friend who happen to see my status that day on Facebook saying we were in the park happen to also be there and found us! So crazy that Facebook status thing!
Anywho...
Because he was there, we were able to get our first family photo!
Here are some shots from the day!

Of course she was fussing for the photo b/c I just picked her up from her cozy spot on her bobby and blanket.
Daddy dazing at his lil girl!

Oh, and she is sporting a Amy Tangerine onsie custom made by my sweet friend Amy Tan!

Sweet Baby Cheeks.
She was so relaxed after having a nice full tummy and being outdoors really for the first time.
We sat under a beautiful tree & just relaxed for a lil while.
Then we went to Whole Foods to get some non-dairy grocery items for me since I'm on a dairy free diet now.
She is doing a lot better since I've been off dairy too.
Her poo is getting back to that mustard yellow that it's suppose to be!
So a milk protein was definitely the culprit.
Hoping that I can slowly add it back in as she gets a bit older.

Saturday, we offically went back to work.
Ulmer Studios that is.
We had a sweet photo session w/a lil 19 month old girl.
Josh did most of the running around.
I realize I did a lil more than I should've and I didn't even do much.
Still gotta take it a bit easy.
Chasing a 19 month old is not recommended anymore!
haha
It was our first time w/out Josie.
My parents watched her for a few hours.
I left some stored milk w/them but she didn't take it very well.
We used a nipple for 1+month but I think the flow is too fast for her still.
So we are going back the step below that.
We are going to have daddy give her some expressed milk by bottle a few nights this week for her to get used to the artificial nipple b/c we are SLAMMED the month of May so she will be w/Grannie & Pop a lot so we have to get her used to taking a bottle some.
Any other suggestions on how to do that?
She hardly took any by bottle for my 'rents.

Well, back to work on stuff for my next class at SIStv!
Stay Tuned!

Oh and today is the last day to sign up for the BLOG CLASS AT SIStv!
xo

I actually did it...

2009-04-23T06:05:00.000-05:00

So ya... I actually scraped today.

I can't believe it.

It's been months.

I had to play w/the Studio Calico kit I had sitting here!

I just adored all the products b/c it was mostly Sassafras.

So here is Josie's first page.

A photo of her in that milk coma.

Im telling you that this photo makes me so happy.

My milk didn't come in til day 7 and this photo was taken on day 8.

She was finally satisfied and had a full tummy after 7 long days.

Those 7 days were the most nerve wracking and anxiety filled days ever.

She was losing weight daily and it scared me to death.

So it's just a lil note to her about all that.

It felt SO good to scrap again.
I will slowly get back into the swing of things.
Time management is key.
With me working from home now on several different projects in addition to
Ulmer Studios
it's hard to fit it in.
Im going to try though.
So... she is 6 weeks!
You know what that means...
PHOTOS

What a sweet lil face huh?
I adore her kissy lips!

I just can't get enough of her...
Well the week has been great.
Got some work done.
Anxious to launch our website.
Soon!
Working in new SIStv Classes!
Speaking of...

I am SOOO taking this class!
I can't wait to give my blog a face lift!
CLICK HERE to sign up!

Off to be mama.
xo
And I had to ETA this...
I do the "Happiest Baby on the Block" swaddle right...
DUDU
down up down up...
I even bought my own fabric so it was stretchy enough.
Im always SOOO good at it.. she is wrapped up so tight and snuggly...
Well I just went to wake her up from her nap to eat...
and I walk in our room to this...

Apparently I didn't do a good job this morning!
haha

Monday-ness

2009-04-20T04:10:00.000-05:00

Kinda tired today.
No real reason.
Just tired.
Going to definitely nap this afternoon.
We had a great weekend w/Daddy! I wish he could work from home.
I enjoy his company sooooo very much.
We took a few photos this weekend...

Her personality is def starting to come out.
She'll be 6 weeks old tomorrow!
So unreal!
Going to start with some tummy time this week and working on her rolling over and stuff.
It's so amazing seeing her grow.
She is probably close to 9lbs now.
Still a lil bit though.

We come off of "Maternity Leave" from Ulmer Studios this weekend!
Have a sweet lil session w/a mama and lil girl on Saturday!
Going to be sunny & 82!

I have a list of things to do this week.
I'd love to possibly do a scrapbook page!
GASP!
I know!
It's been months...
Maybe when she is napping sometime this week I'll craft up something.
Don't hold me to that though!
I may just nap instead!

Oh, Im looking for a baby book.
Not a cheesy one.
A fun one.
I've seen all these super cheesy ones & I don't want one of those.
So if you have a pretty good NON CHEESY baby book,
I'd love to know where you got it!
Alrighty!
Time to go.
xo

A Whole Month...

2009-04-13T11:48:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's been a month!
Took the typical photo of her next to a stuffed animal that we will do every month to watch her growth...

In her cute lil Easter dress!

We had a great Easter with family and lots of yummy food!
The past week has been filled w/her eating and sleeping still.
She's a pretty good napper.
After she nurses, she's out for a good 2 hours.
At night, she is waking up about every 4 hours to eat so she is feeding about 2 times a night.
A lot easier on mama.
As her lil tummy gets bigger, and she puts on more weight, it will stretch out some more.
Oh, speaking of... question for you nursing mamas out there...
When your baby started sleeping more at night, did you wake up to pump at night so you weren't engorged or don't get a plugged duct?
I've had 2 plugged ducts.
One was minor but lasted a couple days then was gone.
The other was horrible. I was in pretty bad pain.
But I did was your suppose to and did warm compress before nursing, then nursed w/her upside down basically.. laying down w/her chin at the clogged duct... and then did ice afterward and she pulled out the clog in 2 nursing sessions!
It was such a relief.
Yes, I will probably talk about all things related to babies...
including breastfeeding, poop, spit up... and all the things in between.

And today I took some of my most favorite photos of her YET!

I just adore her expressions in these photos!
I made this headband w/the help of Elizabeth Kartchner
She had a lil tutorial on her blog last year.

So that is all for today!
Daddy is home so we are going to spend some time with him!

4 Weeks

2009-04-07T13:11:00.000-05:00

So here we are at 4 Weeks!
She's getting so big!
She has offically outgrown the newborn onsies that are 5-8 lbs...
I couldn't get it over her head today...
And she is in a new onsie that didn't fit her before!
So excited to see her grow!!
That is her crib blanket behind her in the first photo.
That lil smirk is cracking me up!

She's even getting some lil kissable cheeks!

So it's offical.
I am a WAHM!
I put in my resignation at the bank.
My HR was so very supportive and encouraging.
Definitely blessed to have worked with a great bank and have amazing supportive co-workers.
Im excited about this new venture w/my baby girl!
We are so blessed that we are able to do this for our family.
So Im keeping myself busy with things I can do from home.
Teaching classes & Ulmer Studios!

The nights are still pretty unpredictable...
Sometimes she sleeps soundly for 3-4 hours... sometimes she cries after 2 hours and I get up and nurse and then she has a hard time falling back asleep.
Im doing everything they say about keeping the contact minimal at night... no talking... no changing if it's not necessary and no lights...
Its just going to take time now.
Hopefully it's going to get better soon.

But our days are good...
She's awake a lot more...
and
we are trying to get some good interaction during the day.
Not too much though.
Oh!
And she got her Social Security Card this week!
I said to Josh...
"Hunny, she's a real person now!"
He laughed...
I said..
"Well, I mean... Uncle Sam knows she's a real person now!"
Well, g/g!
xo

Photo Editing 101 Students...

2009-04-01T05:54:00.000-05:00

Ill be hosting an chat in the classroom today at approximately 2 pm CST!
And I leave you w/Josie... at 3 weeks old!
I took these silly photos for her daddy & sent them to him while he was at work!
Baby Crazy Eyes!

And my sweet friend Jessica Turner came over the other day to meet Josie w/Elias!

Total cuteness huh?

Anywho...
Photo Editing Students...
come by and chat at 2pm CST!
xo

A Few More Hours

2009-03-30T06:10:00.000-05:00

to sign up for the Photo Editing 101 class!!!
Just some examples of some things you'll learn!!

and a bonus action made for YOU by Ulmer Studios

Last Call for Students!!!

We are really pumped about this class!
Step by Step video instructions
Loads of examples
Live chats w/Us

So sign up!
xo

Winner...Moby...& Daddy

2009-03-26T09:13:00.001-05:00

And the Random Number Generator thingy picked comment number...
Number 18

I would love to win this!!!!Your baby is sooo precious!

Posted by:
kat eisner |
March 25, 2009 at 03:17 PM

Congrats!
Kat, email me at ambie04@gmail.com
& we'll get you set up!

Thanks for everyone that commented! Your words of encouragement are so helpful!
So today... we tried out my Moby Wrap
Once I got it fitted right... she fell right to sleep w/just some singing of our favorite song...
You are my Sunshine.
My dad and mom used to sing that to me.
I have her head poked out a lil here so you can see..

So sweet...
I love just listening to her breathe.
This wrap is so versatile.
It will change w/her as she grows.
It's a lil challenging now to get it fitted just right b/c of how tiny she is, but the more practice the better.
One of my sweet blog readers...
Ashlee Baker
makes ring slings and she going to be sending me one!
How sweet!
Those are definitely a lot "easier" to just throw on and pop her into so that will be so nice too!
So thanks so much Ashlee!
And another sweet gift from a blog reader and SISter over at SIS
Lacey Baker
(no relation to Ashlee... I don't think)
made me a adorable nursing wrap!

I just love it!
I've already used it several times when we've gone to the dr. office and running errands.
So thank you so much!

This week of Josh being back at work has been hard emotionally for me.
As soon as he walks in the door, I just burst into tears...pretty hard.
I just get so happy to see him... smell him, hear his voice...
Here are some quick shots of him and sweet Josie when he gets home.
The shots are pretty grainy b/c I didn't feel like dragging out the flash so I just bumped the ISO.

Just too sweet.

Well...that is all for today.
I've really enjoyed blogging more since she came.
Thanks for reading and commenting!

Winner...Moby...& Daddy

2009-03-26T09:13:00.000-05:00

And the Random Number Generator thingy picked comment number...
Number 18

I would love to win this!!!!Your baby is sooo precious!

Posted by:
kat eisner |
March 25, 2009 at 03:17 PM

Congrats!
Kat, email me at ambie04@gmail.com
& we'll get you set up!

Photo Editing 101 Class Giveaway!

2009-03-25T08:58:00.000-05:00

I want to thank everyone for sharing their experiences and stories w/their newborn.
It really means alot
&
helps alot.
I do have a bouncer that I have been taking her in the bathroom with me to shower and that has worked wonders!
She loves that thing!
Thanks Sherri!
I have her swing in the living room and today was her first day that after a feeding, she just laid in her swing contently while I worked on the laptop on the couch.

We have Arm's Reach Cosleeper that is next to the bed that we tried last nite. It worked for maybe an hour, then she wailed...
No dirty diaper...
Not time to nurse...
As soon as I cradled her in my arms, she was silent and asleep.
Today, she has napped twice swaddled and in her cosleeper.
She loves her hands by her face so I haven't had the heart to swaddle her completely.
We swaddle her from the armpits down, nice and tight.
Going to keep on the swaddling thing.

Day 1 & Day 2 have gone great so far.
GranniePop & Uncle Jonathan came to visit and hold her for a bit. She was nice and alert for them.
My friend is bringing us dinner and coming to meet her shortly.
Daddy will be home in a few hours.
I might try to take a nap w/her later.
I have eaten, showered, eaten some more, worked, and held my baby girl, oh and take care of 2 crazy pups.
It's been a good day!

Now to the Photo Editing Class over at SIS!

I am teaching this class w/the spunky Kayla Aimee Terrell and it's going to be a blast!
Tell me more: You can have magazine worthy photos even without the use of a fancy camera. You really can! That perfect skin and colors that pop? Those really cool photos that look vintage? It's all in the editing of the pictures! This 5 day class is complete with screen capture video so that you can follow along as we navigate the basics of photo editing. The course includes lessons on brightness, contrast, sizing, black and white conversions and creating color washes with and without the use of actions. You'll learn to give your photos an extra pop with bright color washes, cross processing, textures and more! We'll even teach you a few airbrushing secrets, like how to slim certain areas or um, enhance certain areas. Plus, the class comes with a bonus cross processing action created just for you by Ulmer Studios!
Class begins Monday, March 30! Class access will be emailed to students 24 hours prior to the start of class. This class is suitable for Photoshop Elements and higher. If you do not currently have Photoshop, you can download a free trial to use for the class at www.adobe.com

So... Now for the giveaway!
SIS is letting me give away a spot!
So...
Just leave me a comment
&
Ill do that random number generator thing and choose a winner tomorrow!
Cut off is tomorrow at 2pm (central time)
xo

How Did You Do It?

2009-03-24T02:02:00.000-05:00

Josh went back to work today.
Josie is feeding great!
Like clock work.
Every 2 hours.
And she is sleeping the bed w/us.

We didn't know of any other way right now so we could get some rest.

So I have flashlight next to me that I turn on when she wakes up to eat to latch her on and she feeds for 20-30 min and then I lay down and have her cradled in my arm and we go back to sleep.
And wake up in 2 hours and do it all over again.
Exhausting.
I just don't know of any other way.
She loves to be cradled and held.
It seems to be the only way she will fall asleep soundly.
I know she is only 2 weeks old.
Things will get better.

So today.
Im home alone.
My SIL is across the street so if I need help, she is there.
Right now Josie is in her bouncer.
The light humming noise is making me want to go back to sleep.

So I want to know...
How did you handle the first 2 weeks to a month w/a newborn and their eating/sleeping habits and the things you need to get done.
By things you need to get done, I mean...
shower.
eat.
sleep.

I know the whole...
"sleep when she sleeps"
but that is so hard b/c I so outta my routine of napping so when I lay down.. my brain keeps going.
I guess I need to just force myself, right?

Ok... off to try and eat some breakfast while she is content.

Oh, we had her Newborn Session done by a local photographer, Amelia Hambrook.
At the session, Amelia let us snag some of our own shots too. She had some amazing crocheted things and great blankets!
You can see them
HERE.
Ill be doing an post w/all of the shots Amelia took soon!
This is my fave from what Josh took at the session.

And I interrupt this post to include this!!!!!

It's up for SALE HERE!!!

There is also a $2 off Coupon
HERE
And I will be giving a FREE SPOT AWAY on my BLOG
THIS WEEK
SO
CHECK
BACK!

Good Gain

2009-03-20T15:40:00.000-05:00

Yup!
The pediatrician appt yesterday went great!
My milk came in Tuesday and she gained 5 oz in 2 days!
Praise God!
There was nothing better for me to see than a full belly on my little girl!
I felt like I could finally breathe.
I felt like I was holding my breath for days.
I know lots of babies lose weight in the first few days/week.
But since my milk didn't come in until day 7, it was great to see that gain in 2 days!
I found out from my lactation consultant, who happens to be a great friend of mine's mom, that my milk was more than likely delayed b/c of the placenta issues I had and until the very last of my placenta passed, my milk wouldn't come in.
So we are all good now!
She's an eating champ!

Here are some cute photos Josh took on Day 8 & 9...yesterday.
This is the look of satisfaction after a good meal!
Finally!

And today we went to a sweet local photographer friend of mine who does AMAZING newborn work for
her newborn session and some family photos.
They turned out amazing!
She even let us take some of our own so we could have some to immediately play with and post while she worked on her processing of them.
I will post those tomorrow!
Until then...
I can't stop sharing our beautiful girl with the world...
So enjoy!
xo

Day 4 at Home & First Bath

2009-03-16T18:33:00.000-05:00

Things are going good.
It's hard... no doubt.
That transition.
Josie had some jaundice when we left the hospital and did not feed really well while we were there.
We had a pediatrician appt the day after we got home. She lost a good bit of weight.
I was scared.
She would get so angry when trying to nurse.
She hardly nursed that day.
So that night I called the pediatrician and she suggested we supplement to get her some energy to nurse.
So we did through out that night. 3-4 times I think.
The next morning she went in to get weighed and gained 3.5 oz back.
:)
And immediately nursed when she got home...
and has nursed 100% ever since!
My milk still hasn't come in.
Think it's delayed due to not nursing well at the hospital and the stress I had w/her not nursing at home at first.
We have another pediatrician appt in the morning to get weighed and see how her jaundice is doing.
Will update!
Til then...
Here are some photos from Day 4 at home and her first bath tonight!

xo